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AMERICA 



AND THE AMERICANS. 



BY 



W. E. BAXTER, Esq., M.P. 



\ 



LONDON: 
GEO. ROUTLEDGE & CO., EARRINGDON STREET. 

NEW YORK: 18, BEEKMAN STREET. 

1855. 






LOST) ox : 

SAVILL AND EDWABDS, PBIJTTEBS, 

CHANDOS STEEET. 









PEEFATOEY NOTICE. 



The substance of this work was delivered in the form 
of Lectures, at Dundee, last autumn. The Author 
has added little, and made few alterations of any 
consequence; but every sentence has undergone a 
careful revision, with a view of preventing misap- 
prehension, and securing that confidence on the 
part of the public which, notwithstanding difference 
of opinion, accuracy and impartiality generally 

command. 

« 

London, March 2ith, 1855. 



AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS, 



CHAPTEE I. 

Introductory remarks — English Tourists on the Continent of Europe — 
Qualifications of a good traveller — Advantages of visiting foreign 
countries — Claims of America in this respect — Statement of my plan 
and purpose — The Cunard and Collins steamers — Voyages on the 
North Atlantic — Approach to New York — A glimpse at the future 
of the Great Republic. 

Thackeray, in one of his amusing novels, remarks, " To 
see with one's own eyes, men and countries, is better 
than reading all the books of travels in the world." So 
think the majority of English parents in affluent circum- 
stances, and accordingly the education of young men 
who have attended the classes at our great seminaries 
of learning, is not considered as complete until they 
have made what we usually style " the grand tour." In 
lands celebrated by poets and philosophers of the olden 
time, they finish their classical studies, and begin their 
observations on the aspect of things in the world. 
Having in the halls of the university repeated the 
burning language of Cicero, and pored over the finished 
strains of the Mantuan bard, they set out on a pilgrim- 
age to the ruins of that forum which once rung with 
the plaudits of excited Romans ; and to those scenes of 
rural beauty which Virgil, in his Greorgics, so accurately 
describes. Among orange and olive trees they trace 
the site of the Academia where Plato taught wisdom to 
the youth of Athens ; and from the top of Hymettus, 
the mountain of the honey bees, they look down on 
Marathon and Salamis, on spots which will be sacred to 
the goddess of liberty, until Grecian heroes cease to 

B 



2 AMERICA AXD THE AMEBIC A1STS. 

add interest to the historic page. One can now see 
almost any day nnder-gradnates of Oxford ascending 
the Pyramid of Cheops, and Cambridge men smoking 
their nargilehs on the banks of Abana and Pharphar, 
rivers of Damascus. After a year thus spent in the 
ancient seats of civilization, they return to be introduced 
at court, and assume their position in society, but not 
to remain permanently at home ; for the tastes acquired 
in more luxurious climates generally induce them, before 
long, again to visit the shores of the Mediterranean, 
and to linger in the unrivalled galleries of Italian art. 
Eormerly they quoted Horace, and sought with eager 
eye the localities celebrated in the elegant pages of 
Livy, now with Tasso they sing of " the pious arms and 
the great commander who liberated the sepulchre of 
Christ," and bow almost reverently before Rafael's 
Transfiguration, in the Vatican. Painting and sculpture 
have usurped the places in their ardent minds which the 
poetry and eloquence of Greece and Rome once occupied, 
and the odes of Petrarch supersede the tender strains 
of Anacreon. "Watch them as they saunter by the 
banks of the Arno, or lounge below the fig-trees on the 
Palatine ; these men will wander far and wide over 
Europe before they settle down to cultivate their pater- 
nal acres, for they have felt the charms of novelty 
among a strange people, and under a southern sky, and 
they will always hear, even in busy London, the voice 
of sirens drawing them towards warmer regions, where 
the mulberry and the palm-tree grow. Nor do the more 
ambitious rest here. They are not contented with the 
beaten track of mere loungers in search of pleasure or 
the fine arts ; but long to explore countries less known 
than Tuscany — to get beyond the reach of ordinary 
tourists, and whilst young and active, to lay up for 
themselves a stock of knowledge, from which they may 
derive lasting satisfaction in after years. "With some 
of these men the love of travelling becomes a rage, and 
before they have reached middle life, like Alexander^ 
they sit down and deplore the absence of new kingdoms 



ENGLISH TOTJBISTS. 3 

to conquer. Not a city in Europe but they have seen, 
not a river which' they do not know, not a mountain with 
whose outlines they are not familiar, not a potentate to 
whom they have not lifted their hats, not a people whose 
dress or manners to them is new. A secret power 
seems to drive them ever onward, till nothing can be 
found to excite curiosity or gratify the desire for change. 
They set out on journeys without knowing whither they 
are bound, and all places are alike interesting to them, 
because they have seen them all before. They remind 
me of the vagabond Lamas of Tartary, who may be 
found, now in the tea-growing districts of China, and a 
few months afterwards in the tents of nomadic Arabs 
on the plains of Turkistan. Once and again I have 
met such men, and listened to their hairbreadth escapes 
and wonderful tales. They can scarcely be called citizens 
of any particular country, but from long habit and with 
restless impulses, they roam over the earth without " a 
local habitation," or a home to receive them when in the 
sear and yellow leaf. There is another class of tourists, 
appropriately designated by Sir Walter Scott, w English- 
men in search of the comfortable," who have afforded 
me no small amusement when they happened to cross 
my path. They are usually to be found in Switzerland 
or on the Rhine, poring over bills of fare, written in 
puzzling Erench, or clamorous for beefsteaks and egg- 
cups. One cannot spend half an hour more profitably 
than in listening to their conversation when two or three 
parties have met at supper, to compare notes of their 
day's experiences. Not a word is said about noble ruins, 
architectural triumphs, or mountains and rivers, whose 
vastness raises the mind to Deity. Ear different themes 
suffice for them. The first never got a better dinner in 
his life than at the Hotel D'Angleterre ; the second 
could not drink the sherry which he ordered yesterday ; 
the third can't conceive what pleasure there is in travel- 
ling in countries where the beds are so small ; the fourth 
laments the ignorance of certain individuals who could 
not answer his interrogations in English ; the fifth 

b2 



4 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

objects to the cooking at Chamouni ; the sixth threatens 
to inform the editor of the Times that the landlord at 
the Hospice where he remained to dine, kept no tole- 
rable port. Occasionally a man of this kind is led by 
some unexplained fatality, to wander out of the well- 
worn paths, and then like a swimmer beyond his depth, 
he betrays excessive agitation, and bawls lustily for 
assistance. 

To travel profitably, it has always appeared to me 
that a person, in addition to habits of observation, a 
candid spirit and an amiable temper, must have some 
previous acquaintance by means of books with the coun- 
tries whose scenery, manners and institutions he desires 
to see. He then knows what to look for, and does not 
fail to notice peculiarities which might otherwise escape 
him. He can thus more easily make comparisons, form 
true estimates, and hit upon the points of most general 
interest. As the Spanish proverb says, " He who would 
bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the 
wealth of the Indies with him." A friend of mine told 
me that last autumn he met in the highlands of Scot- 
land two men from the English midland counties, of 
gentlemanly aspect and demeanour, who were so ignorant 
of our social state, that they had brought with them an 
immense box containing bread, meat, cheese, and beer for 
their sustenance in a country where they expected to 
find only kilted Celts fed on cakes and porridge. Evgn 
Dr. Johnson, wise as he was, before setting out on his 
tour to the Hebrides, provided himself with a pair of 
pistols, some gunpowder and a quantity of bullets : and 
nothing is more common than to find educated people 
about to visit parts of the world, of whose history, geo- 
graphy and resources they know absolutely nothing. ]No 
wonder they commit most egregious mistakes, and after 
all return very little wiser than they were at starting. 

I need not dwell at any length on the advantages 
derived from personal observation in foreign countries, 
where one shakes off the limited notions, the crude 
opinions, the prejudices, the exclusiveness and the 



ADVANTAGES OF FOREIGN TRAVELLING. 5 

mantle of illiberality which lie is apt to contract at 
home, and by careful attention to the manners and cus- 
toms of other nations, by contrasting one state of society 
with another, and by intercourse with the wise and good 
abroad, learns to see things in their proper bearings, 
and to look beyond the contracted limits of a territory 
or a sect. A narrow circle of acquaintanceship, a life 
of comparative exclusion, an unwearied repetition of the 
same opinions, must tend to limit the operations of the 
mind ; but the man whose natural powers fit him to rise 
above such restraints, when he begins to mix with the 
great world around him, will soon see the glimmerings 
of light through the dense mists which have hitherto 
enveloped him ; and if his disposition be one of real 
goodness, he will become as tolerant as enlightened, as 
patient as profound ; conscious how far he himself had 
erred, he will look with a kindlier eye on the frailties of 
others ; reminded of his former ignorance at every step 
of his progress, he will judge his neighbours more 
leniently, cherish a spirit of charity and meekness, and 
" so fulfil the law of Christ." 

The rapid extension of railroad and steamboat com- 
munication of late years throughout the Continent, has 
brought near to us places which our fathers looked upon 
as at the uttermost ends of the earth, and enabled many 
to visit countries little known and remote, who but for 
it would have been obliged to content themselves with 
less distant journeys. In the orange groves of the 
Grecian Archipelago, in the bazaars of Constantinople, 
on the rocks where the two seas met and stranded the 
bark of St. Paul, seated at a frugal meal on the top of 
the Apennines, riding over the dreary plains of Castile, 
among vines overhanging the Tagus, on board little 
vessels on the Swedish lakes, driving in carrioles across 
the Fjeldes of jSTorway, wherever anything new is to be 
seen, there you may be assured of meeting a countryman 
with his shooting-jacket, map and note-book, one who 
can talk of Venetian gondolas and Finnish sledges, and 
who knows the various kingdoms between Gibraltar and 



6 AMEBIC A A1STD THE AMEBIC AKS. 

Archangel as well as a Scottish cotter knows the parish 
where he was bred. 

JSTow it has frequently occurred to me whilst convers- 
ing in these out-of-the-way places with intelligent youths 
of this class, that there is one country which modern 
science has brought almost to our very doors, but which 
they in their commendable desire to enlarge their minds 
bj foreign experience seem most unaccountably to have 
overlooked. "Without in the least depreciating the 
advantages to be derived from visiting the galleries of 
Italy, the Vega of Granada, the passes of the Alps or 
the wild fiords on the Norwegian coast, I am inclined to 
think that the time of many keen observers of men and 
manners might be much better spent in the United 
States of America. True there are in that great republic 
no ruins of arches, and towers, and mighty palaces, 

" Beninants of things that have passed away, 
Fragments of stone reared by creatures of clay;" 

no grim castles perched on rocky heights, no glaciers 
on which the natural philosopher can pitch his tent, no 
legends to be told in the moonshine as it blends with 
the lights of eve, no costumes reminding one of ages 
long gone by, no gloomy cathedrals, or brilliant courts, 
or regal thrones ; but there are things much more 
interesting in this progressive age : cities starting up 
like mushrooms on the banks of lakes but lately explored 
— prairies awakened into new life by an advancing mul- 
titude of busy men — church-spires appearing above the- 
forests which a few years ago sheltered the wigwam of 
the savage — locomotives snorting on the pasture grounds 
of the buffalo — new ideas in social economics carried 
into practice with a vigour unknown in older lands — the 
experiment of self-government being tried on a scale 
which excites the wonder of the world — independent 
commonwealths springing into existence complete, well- 
ordered, ready for energetic action, like Minerva, full 
armed from the head of Capitolian Jove. 

The thoughtful and practical mind, interested in the- 



ADVANTAGES OF AMEKICAN TRAVELLING. 7 

advancement of man as a free, intellectual and respon- 
sible being, convinced tbat ancient customs and dominions 
have become obsolete and unsuitable to the demands of 
society, will learn far more during a couple of months' 
residence in the United States than in the course of 
many summers spent in Italy. The energy, enterprise, 
industry and inventive skill of the Anglo-Americans 
secure for their country a glorious future ; and if they 
are fond of novelty, apt to run into extremes, always 
ready to embark in schemes which promise advantage, 
however wild, their dearly bought experiences serve as a 
lesson to us, and from their failures as well as from their 
achievements we may learn wisdom. Armies of soldiers 
and bureaucrats confine the actions of men on the 
European continent within a , contracted sphere ; the 
natural elasticity of the human spirit is checked ; the 
people move like automatons at the beck of despotic 
cliques, and nations which long ere this ought to have 
acquired the full stature of manhood, have not yet put 
away childish toys ; but in America thought is as free as 
the air on the prairies ; an educated public themselves 
hold the reins of power ; one may say what he pleases, 
and go where he pleases, " none daring to make him 
afraid." The principles of the Pilgrim Fathers have 
pervaded a vast confederation ; and if error is allowed 
free scope, truth is unfettered also, and by its unaided 
power has proved how much it can accomplish without 
the support of civil authority or coercive laws. One 
cannot be long in the country before observing that 
New England influence everywhere carries the day, and 
that notwithstanding the unceasing immigration of Irish 
Catholics and German rationalists, the influx of vaga- 
bonds and criminals from other nations, and the utmost 
exertions of visionaries in politics, morals, and religion, 
the great body of the people are deeply imbued with the 
principles of law and order, and persuaded that the 
pillars of their national greatness rest on the Protestant 
faith. 

English travellers have, however, during the last year 



8 AMEEICA AND THE AMEEICANS. 

or two turned their attention more to the United States, 
and not a few well qualified to state their impressions 
with candour and accuracy, have spent in them leisure 
time which would otherwise have been passed in con- 
tinental resorts where they had nothing new to learn. 
These modern observers of American manners and pro- 
gress have arrived at very different conclusions from 
those superficial writers who, formerly, circulated in 
Great Britain mere caricatures of a people destined at 
no distant date to plant the standard of civil and reli- 
gious liberty in every nook and corner of !Nbrth Ame- 
rica. Ocean steamers, railroads, and telegraphs have 
led to an intercourse between the two countries which 
will prove the surest guarantee of mutual good feeling, 
and which has already exposed the fallacies and misre- 
presentation of book-makers, desirous not of eliciting 
truth, but of pandering to a vitiated public taste. ^Farther 
on I shall have something more to say about authors of 
this class ; at present, suffice it to remark that tourists 
of far more ability and real acquaintance with the 
institutions of the Union, men like Mr. Alexander 
Mackay and Sir Charles Lyell, have, in their able pub- 
lications, informed us of the true facts of the case, and 
thereby consigned calumnious publications to merited 
oblivion. I shall dwell more fully by-and-by on the 
testimony of these and other influential persons ; in the 
mean time I may say here, at the outset of my remarks, 
that the verdict of nearly all the intelligent Englishmen 
who have recently travelled in America, is decidedly 
favourable. They agree with me in condemning the 
tarsh statements once believed on this side of the At- 
lantic, in expressing astonishment and pleasure at what 
they saw in the Great Republic, and in auguring from 
the material improvements, the mental activity, the 
moral power, and the religious energy of the Anglo- 
Americans a destiny which will equal, if not eclipse, 
anything of which we have yet read in history. 

Early in the spring of 1846 I started on my first trip 
to the United States, and before autumn I had travelled 



MX PLAK AND PURPOSE. 9 

several thousand miles in the central, northern, and 
part of the western districts of the Union, besides visit- 
ing Upper and Lower Canada. My observations were 
carefully noted down at the time, and now I can com- 
pare them with those made during a much more extended 
journey in the years 1853 and 1854, in the course of 
which I visited the Ear West, the Southern slaveholding 
States, and the island of Cuba, besides many portions of 
the Atlantic seaboard, the Lake country, and the valley 
of the Ohio, omitted during my former tour. My prin- 
cipal object in crossing the ocean, was by personal in- 
spection, by intercourse with men in public and private 
life, by general conversation and careful inquiry, to 
understand the people and form correct impressions of 
their manners, institutions, politics, social economy, and 
national prospects ; keeping this object in view, I made 
a point of gaining access to different circles, commercial, 
political, literary, and religious, so as to hear the opinions 
of men who took opposite views on the leading questions 
of the day, and, if possible, to avoid one-sidedness and 
partiality. Having read all the books relating to the 
Union, which have appeared for many years past, I had 
arranged in my own mind the principal subjects of in- 
terest before setting out, thus availing myself of the 
labours of others in order to correct and facilitate my 
own investigations. My desire, now, is to exhibit, in a 
popular form, the result of my inquiries, to describe 
what I saw and heard on the other side of the Atlantic, 
to present my readers with evidence, after hearing which 
they can form their own opinions ; and if my notes are 
necessarily imperfect and faulty, I trust to their kind- 
ness in giving me credit for truthfulness and candour. 

My wish is to be fair and impartial in stating facts 
which came under my notice, without dogmatism or 
theorizing ; to suggest, not to pronounce judgment ; to 
supply them with materials for coming to correct con- 
clusions, not to advocate particular nostrums of my own. 
I do not expect to be always consistent, for a determi- 
nation to be consistent often involves a sacrifice of 



10 AMEBIC A AKD THE AMEBIC A¥S. 

truth, and as Miss Bremer somewhere remarks, " is the 
hobgoblin of little minds." At the same time it is not 
very easy for a writer to discuss some questions which 
naturally arise out of a theme like this without at least 
indicating his own sentiments; and if these do not 
in all cases accord with those of others, he can but throw 
himself on the indulgence of his readers and ask for 
their attention, if not their acquiescence. No man can 
write on America without touching on church polity, 
education, temperance, and slavery. On these questions 
great difference of opinion exists amongst us ; but as my 
principal object in visiting the United States was to 
examine those very subjects, I must boldly enter upon 
their discussion, endeavouring to keep my personal im- 
pressions as much as possible in the background, but 
concealing, modifying, exaggerating nothing, for the 
purpose of conciliating parties who have already taken 
up particular ground, or of securing popular approba- 
tion and applause. Some things which I saw on the 
other side of the Atlantic ran counter to my precon- 
ceived ideas, some favoured them ; there are two sides 
of every important question which now agitates the 
Union. I shall endeavour to tell all — to make a clean 
breast of it — although many persons may be thus led to 
form different views from mine; so that, however 
vexatious some of my statements may appear in relation 
to theories now in vogue, all who read them may at 
least be able to apply to me the words of the unfor- 
tunate Chatterton: — 

" Behold the marine ! hee spake the truthe, 
Hee's greater thanne a kynge." 

Thirty-five years ago one of Scotland's ablest scien- 
tific men told a friend of mine that, however well vessels 
driven by steam-power might suit on rivers, they could 
never be rendered serviceable on broad estuaries, much 
less on the ocean. In 1835 a leading 'Keview' pro- 
nounced as impracticable the attempt of steam-ships to 



THE CTTKABD AND COLLIKS' STEAMERS. 11 

cross the Atlantic ; not long afterwards the guns of the 
6 Sirius' in the bay of New York, proclaimed to excited 
multitudes that the problem was solved ; in June, 1853, 
the ' Arabia,' the crack ship of the Cunard line, arrived 
off the Bell Buoy, in the Mersey, having accomplished 
her voyage from Jersey city, on the Hudson, in nine 
days seventeen hours. For many years past the vessels 
belonging to this company had made their passages with 
as much, if not more, regularity than any steamers 
which trade on the English coast. But, if in respect to 
their management and the excellence of their machinery, 
they are unrivalled, the Collins' boats which now carry 
the mails of the United States, bear off the palm as far 
as model and external accommodation are concerned. 
I have made not a few sea voyages in steam-ships of 
various nations ; but of none do I cherish such a pleasing 
recollection as of that performed last January in the 
American packet ' Baltic,' although it blew a furious 
gale of wind from the time we left the Highlands of 
Neversink until we sighted the coast of Ireland. She is 
a noble steamer of 2700 tons, with three decks, an 
engine of eight hundred horse-power, a spacious dining 
room, capable of seating two hundred people, and two 
elegantly furnished drawing rooms, the former above, the 
latter below the main deck, besides a smoking room, 
spacious apartments for the officers, and quite a village 
of private state rooms. Her dinner table was loaded 
with the greatest luxuries of the season, and every 
person who is in the habit of frequently crossing the 
Atlantic, knows that a better seaman, or a more attentive, 
agreeable man than Captain Joseph J. Comstock never 
trod the quarter-deck of an ocean steamer. 

The North Atlantic presents few interesting pheno- 
mena like those which amuse the sailor within the 
tropics ; you may cross it without seeing a single ship, 
or anything more exciting than shoals of porpoises 
darting through the heaving waves, and a few whales and 
blackfish spouting around the vessel. But the ocean is 



12 AMEBIC A A1STD THE AMERICANS. 

never altogether wanting in variety, and to minds pecu- 
liarly constituted always has charms, even in latitudes 
where no flying-fish rise before the prow, and no albatross 
reposes its wings on the painted and mirror-like deep. 
How majestic the swell of the sea after a gale, when 
huge steamers roll for days unceasingly, as if masts and 
funnel would go overboard, when the utmost vigilance is 
required to prevent yourself being pitched headlong out 
of your berth and when every timber creaks from stem 
to stern, the billows towering like mountains about to 
overwhelm the frail bark, and the surges moaning like 
a wild beast of the desert, disappointed of his prey ! 
JSTor can I forget the excitement of a sudden hurricane 
from an adverse quarter, the wind howling in the 
rigging, the whistle of the boatswain, the shouts on 
deck, the heavens darkened with spray, the troubled 
waters seething and boiling in agony, displaying ever 
and anon abysses fearful to contemplate, and making the 
ship quiver as she breasts the foaming waves, startled 
petrels meanwhile wailing around the vessel which no 
force of steam can drive a-head against the fury of the 
elements. !STow the spirits of the vasty deep seem to be 
let loose, and billows, gigantic as the Himalayas, swallow 
up each other with a stupendous roar. Sometimes, too, 
the cold winds of Labrador sweep silently along to meet 
the voyager, a dense snowstorm obscures the light of 
day, no one appears on the deserted deck but the look- 
out man and the watchful officer ; gradually bulwp^rks, 
paddleboxes, masts and rigging become spotlessly white, 
the thermometer falls to zero, salt water freezes even in 
the cabins, and the vessel moves along like a living ice- 
berg. Again the scene changes. Boreas retires to the 
chambers of the north, mild zephyrs from the islands of 
spices waft you along, while the seafowl pounce on their 
fishy prey, and the ducks dive and gambol around the 
vessel ; to a sultry noon succeeds a delicious eve ; when 
the last streaks of light fade in the west, the ship leaves 
behind her a bright phosphorescent track on which 



THE VOYAGE. 13 

you musingly gaze, till drowsiness oppresses you, and 

then 

M It is the midnight hour ; the beauteous sea 
Calm as the cloudless heaven, the heaven discloses, 
While many a sparkling star, in quiet glee, 
Far down within the watery sky reposes, 
As if the ocean's heart were stirred 
With inward life, a sound is heard, 
Like that of dreamer murmuring in his sleep ; 
'Tis partly the billow and partly the air 
That lies like a garment floating fair 
Above the happy deep." 

There is something deeply solemnizing in the path- 
less ocean mournfully heaving under the silent stars. 
At such a time, a feeling of loneliness steals gradually 
over the senses, and the mind, by an irresistible impulse, 
is borne upwards to " Him who holdeth the waters in 
the hollow of His hand." On shore, the variety of the 
seasons, of hills and dales, of quiet forests and busy 
towns, the routine of life, the bustle of men, banish 
serious thought ; and there, too, plenty and peace lull 
one to a false security ; but at sea, where far as the eye 
can reach, nothing breaks the prospect over a wild waste 
of surges, where every threatening cloud causes anxiety ? 
and where the tempest warns us how near the confines 
of eternity we stand, cold and callous must be the heart 
of him who thinks not of his Maker. I have already 
quoted from "Wilson's "Isle of Palms;" and frequently 
when watching the drifting spray, and listening to the 
thunder of the billows, have I thought of another pas- 
sage in that beautiful poem : — 

' ' For who, when nought was heard around 
But the great ocean's solemn sound, 
Feels not as if the Eternal God 
Were speaking in that dread abode ?" 

A year and a half ago I was on board the c Pacific' 
steamer, sixteen hundred miles from our desired haven, 
when her mainshaft gave way, rendering altogether use- 
less the starboard paddlewheel, and producing an effect 
among the passengers which words cannot well describe. 
Several years before I was sitting on the hurricane deck 



14 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

of the ' Hibernia,' crossing the banks of Newfoundland in 
a dense fog, when " Helm hard-a-port" roused every one 
in the ship, and the timeous order saved us from being 
dashed to pieces on an iceberg, the freezing wind from 
which sent a momentary chill through our frames. 
In the spring of 1846, the packet which carried me to 
Boston got amongst field-ice, which, after breaking 
many of her floats, she was unable to penetrate. The 
engines were therefore stopped, the vessel put about, 
and steered two hundred miles to the southward, 
till one lovely evening we arrived at the termination of 
the frozen plain, and threaded our way amongst numerous 
icebergs, appearing in the distance like the snow-clad 
summits of the Bernese Alps, assuming as we approached 
more fantastic forms, and displaying a variety of arches, 
minarets, and domes, besides spacious grottoes, through 
which the w^ater dashed in clouds of spray. 

The company on board these Transatlantic steamers is 
generally of the most mixed character, — old-stagers 
from the great cities, who cross every year on business ; 
parties of Americans going to see or returning from 
seeing Europe ; English pleasure-seekers bound for the 
plains where the buffaloes roam; vulgar Californians 
exposing their under-breeding by an excessive fastidious- 
ness ; Germans who eat three times as much as other 
people ; farmers from the West, on their way to buy 
Saxony sheep, and groaning at the ordeal of narrow 
berths and sea-sickness ; lumber-men from New Bruns- 
wick, very personifications of coarseness ; Cockneys 
sneering at everything and everybody; young officers 
stationed in Canada ; southern men, whose special voca- 
tion seems to be to quarrel with all and sundry on the 
slavery question ; ship-captains and play-actors ; clergy- 
men and members of the swell-mob ; forming for the 
time being a happy family, devoted to eating, sleeping, 
gambling, quarrelling, making bets, and singing songs in 
the smoking-room. Then the last day of the passage, 
the chief steward puts on his best suit ; the baker sends 
in huge cakes adorned with Venuses and Cupids ; the 



APPROACH TO KEW YORK. 15 

cook exerts Ms utmost power ; champagne is furnished 
at the ship's expense, and gentlemen of limited powers 
address the company after dinner in very bad speeches. 
Thus ends the voyage ; but how does it begin ? For 
the first few days, the well-seasoned enjoy a monopoly 
of good things, their companions meanwhile lying in a 
dreamy, half-torpid, and vegetative state, in nauseous 
cabins, trying to get their heads lower, and even lower 
still, loathing the sound of the dinner-bell, and so helpless, 
that one might without a shadow of resistance on their 
part, throw them to the fishes. One cold, cheerless 
morning in March, I lay in my narrow crib on board 
a Cunard steamer, listening to the sounds on deck, and 
debating within myself whether or not I could muster 
courage enough to rise. The state-rooms in these 
vessels all enter from either side of a long, narrow 
passage, and the doors are generally left ajar so as to 
admit fresh air. The steward, whose business it was to 
arouse the sleepers, was presently heard descending the 
companion, and never shall I forget the shouts of 
laughter which greeted him when knocking at the door 
of a cabin where slept a little Frenchman from New 
Orleans, and announcing " Eight o'clock, Sir ; time to 
get up, Sir; your trousers at the door, Sir;" he re- 
ceived for an answer, in a tone of calm resignation, 
" Oh, veil, but take dem away ; I sail neber need my 
trousers no more." 

But enough of the ocean, with its grandeur and its 
discomforts ; we have passed Fire Island light, the beams 
of Aurora now play on the islands of Neversink, a yacht- 
like pilot-boat tacks ahead of us, and in a short time the 
telegraph at Sandy Hook will announce in "Wall- street 
that the European steamer is making for the bay of New 
York. It is the month of August, and a powerful sun, 
dispersing every vestige of vapour, bathes the landscape 
in a flood of light ; a multitude of small craft with their 
white cotton sails stud the sea; dense woods on the 

(lempstead shore remind us of the mirage in the desert, 
----- -*"-!-* 



16 AMEBIC A. AKD THE AMERICANS. 

tance to the right, show us that outward-bound packet- 
ships are passing the Narrows freighted with the pro- 
duce of the western hemisphere. Now we are up at 
the Hook, and the gigantic vessel conies round to star- 
board : Staten Island, with its noble woods and white 
villas glistening in the rays of the morning, off the port- 
beam, and Port Hamilton, sparkling like an Oriental 
castle, on the other side of the strait. Behind its bat- 
teries rise the sombre pines of Greenwood Cemetery ; 
astern, the cliffs of the Highlands look down on a 
sandy beach ; and around us, ships of every nation, and 
all sizes, tow-boats, coasting-steamers, lighters, and 
yachts, move to and fro in the well-buoyed channel. 
We pass at length the fort, look up to the slopes on 
Long Island, adorned with groves of cedars and acacias, 
and, losing sight of the ocean, find ourselves in a majestic 
lake, at the further end of which a forest of mingled 
spires and masts marks the site of the Empire City. 
The panorama is Italian rather than English, and wants 
only a burning mountain to be finer than the Bay of 
Naples. It has been my good fortune to visit many 
finely-situated ports on the European coasts; Genoa, 
with her marble palaces, backed by the cones of the 
Apennines ; " Old Lisbon," from her hills, overlooking 
" the expanded Tagus ;" Stockholm, on her rocky 
islands, the Venice of the North ; Messina, nestled at 
the foot of spurs from Etna ; Constantinople, reflected 
in the Golden Horn ; but, in some respects, they must 
all yield the palm to the scene which reveals itself to 
the traveller when, on a bright American summer morn- 
ing, he enters the bay of New York. 

Perhaps the beauties of nature are rendered still more 
attractive by the imagination of those who, like myself, 
believe that no one rightly appreciates the greatness 
reserved for the western world in the womb of time. 
Standing on the cliffs of Castellamare, or watching the 
Adriatic's waves as they roll gently in upon the Lido at 
Venice, I think of grandeur past and gone, of power 
long since crushed, of intellectual vigour transferred to 



THE FUTUEE OF AMERICA. 17 

other climes, of ages, never to return, when Virgil dedi- - 
cated odes to Maecenas, and the council of the Venetian 
Republic entertained the monarchs of Christendom; 
legends of warlike counts and queenly dames pass 
through my mind ; in my dreamy mood I imagine the 
pomp of chivalry, brave knights taking the crusader's 
vow, and bards, before assembled kings, singing of 
Palestine : all the poets and orators, the warriors and 
statesmen of the olden time, seem again to appear on 
the theatre of affairs; but the vision is of the past only; 
I awake and behold a people sunk into a state of semi- 
barbarism, the tide of literature fast ebbing away from 
their shores ; their spirits broken by years of tyranny, 
and the palaces where their forefathers held almost regal 
court mouldering into decay. The lakes and rivers of 
the Xew World call forth emotions very different from 
these. Standing on American ground I think of the 
future ; of the time when these mighty states shall have 
reached their culminating point, and other great repub- 
lics shall, with reverence, from them deduce their birth. 
Here there is neither retrogression nor torpor, but a 
wonderfully active growth, such as has not been wit- 
nessed since the beginning of time. I look through no\ 
long vista of years, and behold city domes shining on hill- \ 
tops where the eagle now screams, wastes over which the 
wild wind blows, densely peopled by industrious men, 
streams yet bearing only the Indian's canoe, and reflect- 
ing the tangled foliage of untrodden forests, spanned by 
bridges of stone, and turned into a thousand channels 
to drive the busy mill, creeks now inhabited by wild 
ducks, filled with ships of every nation under heaven, 
and railroads bearing through the passes of the Rocky 
Mountains loads of merchandize and men. On the 
summits of the Sierra Nevada, I hear the hum of civili- 
zation approaching from the east ; steamers already 
plough the waters of Lake Winnipeg, and Anglo-Saxons 
occupy the fertile empire which Cortes conquered for 
Spain. 



18 AMEKICA AND THE AMERICANS. 



CHAPTER II. 

Scenery in the United States — Absence of lofty mountains — The great 
rivers — The " Openings" — Forest lakes — Wooded plains — Alterna- 
tions of climate — Winter sunsets — Cities and streets — Aqueducts and 
cemetries — Fires and firemen — Architecture — Absence of neatness — 
American fondness for locomotion — General remarks on travelling in 
the Union — The Hotel system. 

It is not my intention to weary my readers with a con- 
tinuous narrative of my wanderings on the American 
Continent, or to ask them to accompany me in journeys 
which occupied several months, and- extended over 
very nearly eleven thousand miles. Suffice it to say, 
that I left few points of interest unvisited, from Chicago 
to the reefs on the Florida* coast, from the mouths of the 
Mississippi to the State of Maine. The journals of so 
many accomplished writers who have travelled through 
the Union have lately been published that I do not feel 
warranted in adopting the same plan in regard to my 
notes, but content myself at present with making a few 
general observations on . its physical features, scenery, 
cities, and modes of locomotion, reserving for succeed- 
ing chapters what I have to say on politics, religion, 
education, slavery, manners, literature, society, manufac- 
tures, and commerce, and recommending those who care 
to pursue the subject to read the valuable work of Sir 
Charles Lyell, entitled " A Second Visit to the United 
States, 55 and the still more comprehensive volumes pub- 
lished by the late lamented Mr. Alexander Mackay, and 
well named " The "Western World. 5 ' For the benefit of 
• those, however, who prefer the narrative style, I intend 
to select from my note-book some fifteen or twenty of 
the most interesting leaves, and present them, with 
rapidly-sketched pictures of scenes, which will remain 
always indelibly impressed upon my mind. 

The most remarkable characteristic of the scenery in 



SCENERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 19 

the United States is the absence of lofty mountain 
chains. Excepting the "White Hills, in JSTew Hamp- 
shire, there are no elevations worthy of note on this 
side the dividing range between the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans ; for the Alleghanies, though occasionally 
picturesque, may be called mere ridges in comparison 
with the mountains of continents far less extensive than 
Xorth America. Here and there you find yourself in 
a valley bounded by rugged cliffs, where the road crosses 
and re-crosses the roaring stream, now is lost in woods 
of recent growth, and again emerges into an open glade 
planted with wheat or Indian corn ; in a few districts 
you see peaks resembling somewhat those of Norway, 
Scotland, or the Tyrol ; but for weeks and weeks you 
may travel across unbroken plains, level and monotonous 
as those on the banks of the Euphrates, or through a 
country gently undulating, like the sea two days after a 
gale of wind. In many parts of the Union, there are 
beautiful landscapes, abounding in all that is requisite to 
charm a painter's eye, craggy hills, wooded slopes, rocks, 
waterfalls, and" wild chasms, in which the torrent boils ; 
but, in general, nature is tame, and the European longs for 
an Alpine peak, or a broad-shouldered Ben Jsevis. I 
shall never forget my feelings, when after travelling six 
weeks in the Atlantic States without seeing a hill, 
having reached the table-land at the head of the 
Patapsco valley, on my way from Baltimore to Pittsburg, 
the wooded summits of the Alleghanies appeared 
between me and the western horizon. They were a 
refreshing memento of home, a relief to the never-ending 
jungles of copsewood and plantations of maize, which 
constitute the Alpha and Omega of the prospect wher- 
ever you wander, from Virginia to Maine. The 
Americans are not indebted to mountains for their free 
and independent spirit, as have been so many nations 
celebrated in the history of the world. 

The grandest physical feature of the United States is 
unquestionably their rivers, almost fabulous in their 
length of course, navigable to the very centre of the 

c 2 



20 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

continent, and overhung by foliage of never-ending 
variety and hue. New Orleans alone has upwards of 
seventeen thousand miles of internal navigation on the 
Mississippi and its tributaries, flowing through climates 
wide as the poles asunder, and soils whose wonderful 
fertility give promise of a glorious future. Far away 
under the lonely peaks of the Eocky Mountains, about 
latitude 49 degrees, three rushing streams form the 
Missouri, which, on its junction with the Yellowstone, 
becomes a noble river, rolling its gray floods over plains 
where the buffalo and the elk still roam at large, and 
the Blackfoot Indians drive them headlong into the 
rifts on the prairie, and satisfy their hunger with heca- 
tombs of the slain. Eor hundreds of miles it pursues 
its way over what has appropriately been termed an 
ocean of grass, a second Nile, long before it arrives at 
Council Bluffs, or pollutes with its discoloured waves the 
pure "Eather of "Waters." The Ohio from the east, 
the Eed Eiver from the ranges of New Mexico, the 
Arkansas from unknown regions beyond the hunting- 
grounds of the Chocktaws, the Tennessee and Cumber- 
land watering settled plains, and countless others, of 
which no catalogue has yet appeared, all contribute 
their quota to the wealth of that western valley; while 
the Hudson, the Susquehanna, and the Potomac, on the 
Atlantic slope, brooks in comparison with the great 
Mississippi, themselves throw into the shade the famous 
streams of Europe. By their means the vast continent 
is opened up to the enterprise of man, and the produc- 
tions of various climates circulate freely over the length 
and breadth of the land ; Minnesota gets its sugar from 
the plantations of Louisiana, and the copper of Lake 
Superior finds its way to manufacturing cities in the 
older States. The rivers of North America have no 
rivals in either hemisphere. 

Yet the scenery is monotonous on these deep alluvial 
soils. The virgin earth may yield abundantly, the black 
loam produce with little trouble green forests of tall 
maize ; but the dense wood looks down on the log 



SCENERY IK THE UNITED STATES. 21 

cabin, the log cabin on the corn field, and the com 
field on the -sluggish stream, in one unending series for 
hundreds of weary miles, until the traveller longs for a 
changing landscape, and the settler, as he sits down, 
wearied with his day's work, under a scorching sun, 
listening to the chirp of the grasshopper, and the snort 
of the steamboat, pines for rocks where his forefathers 
dwelt, and the rushing rapid which foamed and bounded 
by his mother's cottage door. 

Strange as it may seem too, there is often in America 
a want of trees. They are the natural enemies of 
farmers in that land of woods ; and in some places^ 
accordingly, you see houses and offices exposed to every 
blast, without a solitary poplar, or a group of chesnuts, 
to relieve the uniformity of painted boards. Another 
peculiarity of the scenery is what the inhabitants term 
opekikgs ; cleared spaces in the forest, which the 
stranger will be apt to mistake for cultured plains, 
although they occur in the depths of the wilderness, far 
from the dwellings of men. Here grows the fire-grass, 
so much liked by the deer ; and perhaps to encourage 
its springing, and thus allure the game to congregate 
there, the Indians in former days burnt the forests which 
once covered these delightful glades. 

No one who even casually glances at a large map of 
the United States, will fail to observe the multitude of 
small fresh-water lakes scattered in all directions over 
the country. They derive their supply from springs, 
and their romantic shores display a gorgeousness of 
foliage unknown in this older clime.- Mighty rivers can 
trace their origin to a series of sheets of water like 
these, lying away in the wild forest, showing their tran- 
quil loveliness only to the hunter, as he strays from 
beaten tracks, guided by the stars. "Willows dip over 
their translucent waves, and in autumn you can trace 
by its deep scarlet dye, the wild grape-vine creeping to 
the very topmost branches of the larger trees. 

Sometimes as you journey, a height is reached, from 
which you obtain an extensive prospect of dense woods, 



22 AMERICA AlN r D THE AMERICANS. 

bounded by low rocky hills, and here and tbere broken 
into clearings, where a tiny village or solitary settler's 
dwelling bears evidence to the vigour with which the 
pioneer of civilization wields his axe. In a few districts 
the views now and then reminded me of Perthshire and 
the other Scotch counties adjoining the Highlands ; while 
in more thickly peopled parts neat and cheerful farm- 
houses, surrounded by orchards of apple and peach trees, 
legions of turkeys, ducks, and hens, and vast fields of 
thriving Indian corn, testified to an industrious peasantry 
and a fruitful soil. In the low lands you drive for miles 
and miles between fields of maize and clover, diver- 
sified here and there with thickets, affording shelter for 
woodcock, and stagnant pools which form a pregnant 
source of fever and ague. I have passed for days over 
a poor soil, covered with low useless brushwood, and 
again over parks planted with beautiful arborvitae trees 
like English lawns, or some of the better portions of 
Castile. In the slave States, especially, there often 
occur tracts of country rendered calcined and desert by 
excessive cropping, the indolence of the white man, and 
the ignorance of the black. It is pleasant to drive in 
the summer evenings in the vicinity of the larger cities, 
through woods and gardens, luxuriant with foliage and 
teeming with insect life ; innumerable white villas, with 
their green blinds peeping out from groves of maples, 
oaks, and willows ; fruit-trees displaying their tempting 
clusters ; openings in the plantings revealing farm- 
houses, where peace and plenty seem to dwell; and 
grassy knolls, deep dells, shady paths, sylvan lakes, and 
snugly nestled hamlets, forming as many rural attrac- 
tions to the denizens of a busy town. 

In most parts of the Union the fierce sun during the 
dog days burns up the grass, withers the flowers, and 
drives men for shelter into the dark recesses of the 
forest ; whilst in winter the same landscape is like Lap- 
land itself, the rivers freeze, the hedges are covered with 
snow, and the farmer brings out his sleigh to go a mar- 
keting to the nearest village. Well do I remember a 



THE WIKTEK SUNSETS. 23 

day in August, when the deck of a steamer on the Bay 
of New York felt burning to the touch, and no grove 
on Staten Island was thick enough to keep out the 
intolerable rays ; and another day in January, when on 
my return from the land of magnolias and oranges, I 
sailed up the same bay in a snow-storm, huge blocks of 
ice floating past us, and the ships appearing like great 
wandering bergs from the polar seas. 

When the temperature of the air is very low, the 
horizon clear, and no clouds hide the orb of day, how 
brilliant are the winter sunsets in the United States I 
Here, in this grey misty atmosphere, we do not expect 
such dazzling hues ; in the tropics the flood of evening 
sunlight is always the same, soft and bright; but in 
North America the combined effect of clearness and of 
cold, produces an appearance so beautiful, that one can 
almost realize the descriptions of the Apocalypse. The 
heavens seem transparent as a mirror ; earth sparkles 
as a diamond in a casing of silver, and the light reflected 
from the sky is, to use the sublime words of Scripture, 
" like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper 
stone, clear as crystal." 

The cities in the United States have, of course, their 
individual peculiarities, and those travellers have wearied 
themselves to describe ; — New York with her regular and 
irregular thoroughfares crowded all day long with omni- 
buses, drays, and men ; the straight streets of Quaker 
Philadelphia shaded by trees; the rows of quiet but 
stately mansions which adorn Boston ; Baltimore on her 
hill-top overlooking the Chesapeake; the antiquated 
wooden mansions of Charleston; Mobile, a straggling 
village with one business street and one big hotel ; New 
Orleans, a mongrel between Paris and St. Louis ; 
Washington, " the city of magnificent distances," 
another name for noble edifices scattered on a table- 
land just reclaimed from the forest; neat and prim 
Newhaven; austere Salem; Buffalo's spacious streets 
sweeping down to the lake ; Pittsburg, buried in a 
cloud of smoke: the wide avenues and crescents of 



24 AMEBIC A AKD THE AMERICANS. 

Detroit ; tlie quiet semi-English, air of Louisville ; Cin- 
cinnati, with her workshops, and fleets of steamers; 
Chicago's lofty stores risen like mushrooms on the 
shore of Lake Michigan; Lowell and Lawrence, the 
mere adjuncts of enormous mills. But all these are in 
some respects alike. They have many characteristics in 
common which one can scarcely fail to observe. In 
none of them will you look in vain for white wooden 
Bouses, with tiny flower-beds, and green blinds; rows of 
stately brick warehouses, covered with, signs ; large 
shops full of costly goods ; telegraph posts as numerous 
as lamps ; huge hotels, with crowds of smokers at their 
porches ; oyster cellars ; restaurants ; daguerreotype 
rooms as frequent as public houses in Scotland; adver- 
tising vans ; open spaces, boarded in, receptacles for 
rubbish and hens ; livery stables, where unwashed 
wagons and rude harness offend an English eye ; wide 
pavements of wood, brick, or stone ; auctions thronged 
with bidders ; stages driven by rough Irishmen, with a 
rein in each, hand, and their coats off ; church spires ; 
schoolrooms ; public halls ; convenient markets ; ready- 
made clothing establishments ; residences of doctors, 
allopathic, homoeopathic, and herbalist ; heaps of cinders 
and shavings; bricks and mortar laid down for new 
erections; fast men sitting behind trotting horses in 
vehicles which seem to be all wheels; legislators de- 
bating at bar-room entrances : porters moving pon- 
derous bales ; gentlemen with blue dresscoats and boots 
which have not been brushed for a fortnight ; ladies 
wearing shawls which we in England are too poor to 
purchase; and children dressed like miniature men 
and women, and walking with a ludicrous air of fancied 
independence. 

With very few exceptions, American streets are 
wretchedly ill-paved and intolerably filthy, so badly 
lighted that it is dangerous to go out after dark, and so 
full of holes, that European carriages would not be safe 
for a week. I have seen ladies over the ankle-step in 
mud-ruts two feet deep, and chasms large enough to 



THE CITIES AXD STBEETS. 25 

overturn an omnibus. Even in cities, the inhabitants 
of which pay heavy taxes for paving and cleansing, these 
departments are very ill-conducted, and the state of 
many back and cross streets baffles description. So far 
from bearing a comparison with England, the Americans 
in this respect can scarcely claim equality with the 
foulest towns of Southern Europe. There are lanes in 
New York worse than any in Marseilles. I lived three 
days in St. Louis under the impression that the streets 
were not paved at all, and was only undeceived when a 
heavy rain washed away tons of mud, and laid bare the 
rough white stones with which at some distant date 
the thoroughfares had been macadamized. "Wholesale 
dealers, too, are permitted to place their bales and boxes 
of merchandize on the pavements before their stores, so 
that one scrambles rather than walks in the business 
parts of the cities. The goods are conveyed from the 
ships or railroads in light cars without sides, drawn by a 
single horse, having two wheels, and upright moveable 
posts to support the load. The cabs in the United 
States are as handsome and showy as gentlemen's car- 
riages, generally mounted with silver, and always exceed- 
ingly expensive. The price demanded, and even allowed 
by law, is in most cases so exorbitant, that I seldom 
employed them. A stranger will be struck with the 
well-fed appearance of the horses, both in the hacks and 
the drays. Tou scarcely ever see broken-kneed scare- 
crows like those which limp along the streets of 
European towns. 

In two particulars American cities can well claim an 
enviable distinction over those of the older world. Their 
inhabitants have proved themselves " wise in their 
generation," by providing them at the outset with an 
abundant supply of pure water, and extramural places 
of interment. 

The Croton Aqueduct conveys an abundant stream 
at all seasons of the year to New York, from a river 
forty miles distant, at an original cost of fourteen 
millions of dollars. It is an inestimable boon to the 



26 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

population, invaluable in cases of fire, for the use of the 
public bathing-houses and fountains, and for the purifi- 
cation of the streets. At Philadelphia, a wall of solid 
masonry has been built across the Sckuylkill, which 
dams it up, and drives the water into an artificial pond, 
between which and the bed of the river are six large 
wheels on a level with the latter, and driven by water 
from the pond, let in by means of flood-gates. These 
wheels work a force-pump, which raises the water to 
four reservoirs on the top of a natural rocky mound, 
from which it is conveyed in pipes to all parts of the 
city. 

There are no three more sweet and lovely spots on 
earth than the cemeteries of Greenwood, on Long 
Island, near New York; Mount Auburn, five miles 
from Boston ; and Laurel Hill, overhanging the Sckuyl- 
kill, a short distance from Philadelphia. The first con- 
tains two hundred and fifty acres, and all have been 
selected for the picturesque beauty of their situation. 
They are pleasantly diversified with hill and dale, forest 
and lake, and tastefully laid out with drives and walks, 
thickets and groves, old stately trees and flowering 
shrubs, arranged by an artist's hand and an eye which 
delights in sylvan repose. The Americans indeed 
deserve credit for their choice of sites to serve as the 
resting-places of their dead. "Wandering among their 
marble monuments, I have often thought how much 
more suitable these quiet solitildes are than our Scotch 
churchyards, overgrown with noxious weeds, or the 
crowded ornaments and tinsel trappings of Pere la 
Chaise. 

But for the excellent supply of water always at hand, 
the cities in America would, every now and then, be 
burnt to the ground. Even as it is, it has been cal- 
culated that more property has been consumed by fire 
in the city of New York, within the last thirty years, 
than the real estate is worth at this moment. During 
my residence there, several destructive conflagrations 
occurred, and not a night passed without an alarm being 



FIRES A^D FIREMEN. 27 

given. So numerous, indeed, are these burnings, that 
the citizens think nothing of them, and the bells may- 
toll for hours before they inquire what is the matter. 
The number of continuous tolls indicates in what ward 
the fire has broken out, so that every man may take 
care of his life and property. The Astor House Hotel 
was set on fire in 1846, when I was asleep in its third 
story, and it is not likely that I shall soon forget the 
sight of the smoke, and the shouting of the firemen on 
duty. These are volunteers, who pride themselves in 
their efficiency, and the nobbiness of their engines. 
Illiberal people insinuate that some of the corps, not 
unfrequently composed of roicdies and mere boys, get up 
conflagrations for the fun of the thing, and the liquor 
furnished on the occasion. It is certain that thieves 
rejoice in them on account of the opportunity afforded 
for plunder. Many houses are now so slightly built 
that the firemen cannot with safety enter them, and, 
consequently, the insurance companies have of late suf- 
fered more than usual. A few Americans of my ac- 
quaintance entertain grave doubts as to the efficiency 
of the youthful volunteers who claim and get so much 
public applause ; but this heresy is only of recent origin, 
and its propagators dare not yet proclaim it on the 
housetops, lest a storm of public indignation should fall 
on their devoted heads. 

It is scarcely reasonable to expect that a country so 
new as the United States should be able to boast of 
many architectural triumphs, and, indeed, most of the 
edifices, public and private, have been erected more for 
use than for show. But there are a few remarkable 
exceptions, redeeming the national taste in the eyes of 
foreigners, who have been shocked by the numerous 
abortive attempts to imitate Grecian temples and 
Elizabethan villas, especially in the vicinity of the larger 
cities. Girard College, in Philadelphia, atones for a 
multitude of these minor sins against common sense. 
It is an oblong structure of the purest white marble, 
with an over-hanging roof supported by thirty-six mas- 



28 AMEEICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

sive, fluted, and lofty Corintliian pillars, the capitals of 
which struck nie as being carved with unusual elegance 
and skill. Four minor buildings in the same style stand 
on the ground, and form part of the general plan. The 
Post- Office and Treasury in Pennsylvania Avenue at 
"Washington are likewise chaste edifices, worthy of the 
American nation ; but the majestic appearance of the 
Capitol, on its lofty site overlooking the Potomac, throws 
them quite into the shade. As you approach it, you are 
struck with the grace of the columns, and the ample 
proportions of the flights of stairs ; while, from the noble 
dome, elevated nearly two hundred feet above tide- 
water, a view is obtained which cannot be excelled on 
the Atlantic slope of America. 

Fifth Avenue, in ~New York, when completed and 
well-paved, will be one of the finest streets in the world. 
The stately mansions on each side are mostly of brick, 
faced with a brown sandstone, which, in my opinion, is 
handsomer than marble. They all have basement stories, 
and are indebted for their stately appearance very much 
to the massive staircases leading to the porches. Bows 
of trees shade the broad pavements, and here and there 
a splendid church, surrounded with shrubbery and 
adorned with creeping plants, rears its spire above 
the dwellings of the merchant princes. The ecclesias- 
tical architecture of the Empire City will soon attract 
general observation, and already begins to exercise a 
beneficial effect even in the far-off districts beyond the 
Alleghanies. 

"In point of cleanliness," says Mr. Alex. Mackay,* 
" the Americans are in advance of every other people 
with whom it has ever been my lot to mingle." This is 
quite true as far as the interior of their houses is con- 
cerned ; they wash and scrub frequently, and all new 
erections have bath-rooms and other modern appliances 
necessary to health and comfort. On only two occasions, 
in the course of my wanderings, have I had reason to 
complain of beds, which in every respect were not scru- 
* " Western World," vol. iii., p. 167. 



ABSENCE OE NEATNESS. 29 

pulously clean. The exterior arrangements, however, 
the pleasure grounds, flower-pots, gravel walks, and 
offices, will not, in point of tidiness, bear comparison 
with those of English residences. The clumsy fences, 
paths overgrown with weeds, extravagant facades of 
pillars out of repair and sadly in want of paint ; the 
long, thinly-sown grass, the unpruned shrubs, and the 
broken-down enclosures offend the eye of one accustomed 
to the apple-pie order of everything about a British 
villa. There is no prettier village in all the United 
States than Canandaigua, in western Kew York, stand- 
ing as it does on ground gradually sloping doAvn towards 
a beautiful lake, and surrounded by a district of great 
agricultural fertility, finally diversified with hill and dale, 
woodland and water, grass parks and fields of corn ; — 
green lanes shaded by acacias and willows, lead to its 
market-place ; and through pleasant meadows meander 
brooks which have their source in the silent woods ; but 
even there I was struck with the want of attention to 
neatness which characterises Americans. The lawns, 
gardens, porticoes, fences, gates and flower-beds, even of 
handsome villas, were ill kept ; the streets rough and 
dirty; the pavements covered with mud and tobacco 
juice ; and the carriages looked as if they had not been 
washed since the previous winter. The untidiness of the 
poorer classes of native-born citizens has more than 
once pained me. Often have I seen at the bars of 
public-houses in country districts, a crowd of idlers, or 
to use the national term, "loafers," smoking wretched 
cigars, unshaven, dirty, meanly clad, and displaying on 
stoves, counters, and backs of chairs, boots which 
evidently had not been brushed for a fortnight. In the 
Western cities especially, the absence of comfort about 
everything strikes the stranger ; even the houses of the 
wealthier inhabitants being often small wooden build- 
ings, painted a dirty white, and situated next door to 
pigsties, puddles of green water, or mud flats. 

A morbid love of moving from place to place distin- 
guishes the American people. They cannot remain for 



30 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

length of time quietly at home ; but, to use their 
own expression, " are bound to travel." Consequently, 
wherever you go, you find the public conveyances 
crowded ; even in Illinois and Missouri, the railroad 
companies cannot procure cars fast enough to supply the 
demand of a locomotive public ; and not a steamer goes 
up the great river without a full complement of passen- 
gers. "The people of the Xew "World," remarks Miss 
Bremer, # " are fond of being in company, fond of a 
crowd." This not only is true, but accounts for several 
habits not qinte intelligible to an Englishman ; and so ac- 
customed are they to mix in a multitude, that they do 
not think it at all necessary to engage in conversation 
with their neighbours. I have seen fifty men travel 
together for hours without a single word being inter- 
changed. They have a singular habit of using nautical 
phrases for land travel, even those of them who have 
never seen the sea. When a train or an omnibus is 
about to start, the conductor calls out, " All aboard ?" 
if you intend to make a journey in a stage coach, your 
friend asks you if you have paid your " passage ;" and 
the floor of a vehicle is usually termed the "deck." 
With all their "go-ahead" spirit, the Americans bear with 
exemplary patience delays and disappointments in tra- 
velling. I have seen five hundred people in a railroad 
train, sit quietly reading their newspapers and eating 
peaches, although the engine, owing to the careless- 
nesa of the officials, had broken down in the midst 
of a forest, and had remained stationary for three hours. 
Conveyance companies seem to be allowed to act just as 
they think proper. The grossest negligence calls forth 
no letters in the newspapers, and travellers never even 
ask the cause of delays, which in England would imme- 
diately bring down upon their authors a storm of public 
indignation. I once arrived at Sandusky, on Lake Erie, 
to take the steamer thence to Buffalo, and found that 
the owners of the mail packet had coolly sent her away 
in a different direction. Many others were in the same 
• "Homes of the New World," vol. i., p. 271. 



TRAVELLING Itf THE STATES. 31 

predicament, but not one except myself expressed liis 
displeasure, or compelled the agent to pay for his 
unlooked-for detention. In this respect there is a 
somewhat marvellous affinity between the Americans 
and the Spaniards. How they expect officials to be 
attentive and punctual, when such conduct is submitted 
to without a murmur on the part of those who travel, I 
cannot well understand. The practices of railroads and 
steam-boat companies in the United States would not 
in England be tolerated for a day. Whilst passengers 
are thus unceremoniously treated, the conveyance of 
merchandize is both safe and speedy. Sir Charles 
Lyell mentions that although he sent more than 
thirty boxes of geological specimens from various places, 
often far south of the Potomac, and west of the 
Alleghanies, some by canal, some by river steamers, 
others by coaches and railways, " not one of them failed to 
reach without injury his residence in London." # It is 
astonishing to observe the vast quantities of produce 
and manufactured goods in course of transit throughout 
the country; huge steam-boats on the Mississippi and 
Alabama loaded to the water's edge with bales of cotton, 
those on the Ohio burdened with barrels of pork and 
thousands of hams, propellers on the lakes filled with 
" the finest of the wheat" from "Wisconsin and Michigan; 
canal boats in New York and Pennsylvania deeply laden 
with flour of various brands; railroad wagons filled 
; with European merchandise; locomotives struggling in 
. western wilds to drag trains richly freighted with the 
productions of every country under the sun. The 
- 1 United States reminded me sometimes of a great ant- 
hill which you encounter in the woods, where every 
member of the community is either busy carrying a 
burden along a beaten pathway, or hastening away in 

I search of new stores to increase the national prosperity. 
The hotels of the United States in some respects 
illustrate the national character. Englishmen are not 
gregarious, and care neither for living in public nor for 
* " Second Visit to the United States," vol. ii., p. 320. 



32 AMEBIC A AKD THE AMEBIC A1STS. 

display in the arrangements of an inn. The Americans 
on the contrary cannot eat their meals alone, and have 
little notion of real comfort, although fond of splendour 
and vastness. Tew candid people will deny that our 
system requires amendment. The charges are much too 
high: the houses too small; the landlords in general not 
men of sufficient intelligence and enterprise to conduct 
establishments in such a manner as will leave them a 
profit, and at the same time meet the requirements of 
the present age. British hotels remain what they were 
in the time of the Tudors, whilst the means of travelling 
have increased in a wonderful ratio, and all other things 
have undergone an entire change. On the other side of 
the Atlantic they have followed the example of our 
continental neighbours, rather than ours, besides adopt- 
ing various alterations and improvements according to 
the wants of the nation. Every small town from Texas 
to Maine has one or two large hotels, with an office near 
the door, where strangers on entering register their names 
and addresses, and on departing pay their bill, being 
so much per day, without reference to what use has 
been made of the accommodations provided, a dining hall 
of great size, two or three handsomely furnished drawing 
rooms, into which ladies, and gentlemen accompanying 
ladies are admitted, a reading room, and in those States 
where there is no stringent liquor law, a bar plentifully 
supplied with brandy smashes, gin slings, sherry cobblers, 
and other beverages known only in America. Any person 
may go in, look over the newspapers, smoke a cigar, meet 
his friends and hear the news of the day, without any 
ceremony or that feeling of restraint which too often 
pervades our social intercourse. The arrivals afc and 
departures from the principal inns appear every morning 
in the public journals, so that no man need remain igno- 
rant of the movements of his acquaintances. The hotels 
in the large cities are perfect palaces. The St. Charles 
at New Orleans is by far the finest edifice in the place. 
It occupies an entire block, has an under story of 
massive granite, and a colonnade which mav be seen some 



HOTELS. 33 

miles down the Mississippi. You enter the spacious 
hall by means of a noble flight of steps, like those which 
might be expected to lead to a senate house or a univer- 
sity. The proprietor told me he could make up 650 
beds. I shall not soon forget my astonishment, when 
after a long sea voyage, at dusk one fine summer evening 
I was ushered into the gorgeous drawing-rooms of the 
St. Nicholas, at New York. The profusion of mirrors, 
gilding, tapestry, and crystal, fairly bamboozled me. It 
was more like an introduction to the palace of some 
Eastern prince, than to a place of public entertainment 
in a recently discovered world. Every chimney-piece and 
table slab is of marble ; every carpet is of velvet pile ; 
chair covers and curtains are made of silk or satin 
damask ; the looking-glasses are set in frames worthy of 
"Windsor Castle, and the embroidery on the mosquito 
nettings itself might be exhibited to royalty. I occupied 
a very small bed-room, the decbration and furniture of 
which could not have cost less than £200 or £250. In 
these large houses they print their own bills of fare, 
employ an army of servants, and on highdays use plated 
dishes at the public table. The owners are in general 
men of capital and influence, often occupying important 
positions in the community. But they attend to their 
business in all its details, and may be seen, napkin in 
hand, superintending the arrangements of the crowded 
table-d'hote. The St. Nicholas contains 1000 beds, and 
its white marble front forms one of the greatest orna- 
ments of Broadway. The profits of this establishment 
during 1854 were reported to be 53,600 dollars ; those of 
the Metropolitan 45,300 dollars ; of the Astor House 
49,000 dollars ; and of the New York Hotel no less than 
100,000 dollars. These vast inns have generally an impos- 
ing appearance. They are built by capitalists in a style 
to attract public observation, and then leased to enter- 
prising men for a term of years. It is customary to 
name the hotel after the person who furnished the 
money to erect it, as the Mills House at Charleston, the 
Battle House at Mobile, the Burnet House at Cincin- 



o4i AMEEICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

nati. The usual charge iu the chief cities is 2 dollars 
50 ceuts per diem ; in New Orleans, where provisions 
are high, it is 3 dollars ; and in the country it varies from 
1 to 2 dollars, according to circumstance. Very few people 
think of taking their meals in private except regular 
boarders resident at the place, and many even of them 
appear at the table-d'hote every day. In some instances 
I have been unable to procure breakfast and dinner when 
I arrived an hour or two subsequent to the fixed hour 
for the public ordinary. This is a part of the system 
which needs improvement. Ealstaff might after all prefer 
the Boar's Head at Eastcheap to the finest establishment 
in the United States. In more particulars than one, a 
man travelling in America feels inclined to ask, " Shall 
I not take mine ease in mine inn ?" During the hot 
months of summer all citizens who can afford it leave 
their town residences to reside at a country resort or 
fashionable watering-place, where immense hotels have 
been erected for their special benefit. Six hundred 
people sometimes sit down to dinner at once in the 
United States Hotel at Saratoga, and the Ocean House at 
Newport, and gardens, billiard saloons, ten-pin alleys and 
colonnades, adorned with all kinds of creeping plants, are 
attached to most of these monster refuges from the heat 
and dust of mercantile towns. The smaller wayside 
inus in America will not please the stranger. Their 
dirty bar-rooms, ill-cooked victuals, and scantily-furnished 
dormitories, rather repel than attract. At Springfield, 
in the state of Illinois, the passengers by the railway- 
train which stopped there for the night had all to sleep 
on the floor. I and my family huddled together in the 
cleanest-looking corner of a parlour, like Bedouins in the 
Syrian desert. To those, in short, who wish to see the 
people and live in a crowd, the American Hotel system 
offers many advantages ; one who seeks an approximation 
to the* quietness of home, will soon find it very distasteful. 
Wo may profitably adopt it in some particulars ; but 
Englishmen will always prefer comfort to ostentation, 
and neither economy nor love of display will induce them 
to spend much of their lives in a barrack. 



35 



CHAPTEE III. 

Internal navigation — Low-pressure steamers on the eastern rivers and 
lakes — Ferry boats — High-pressure packets on the Mississippi and 
its tributaries — Racing — Railroads — Criticisms on their management 
— Increase of accidents — The "Air" lines of Illinois — Changes in 
the Far West. 

Our transatlantic friends are in the habit of boasting 
that there are more steam-vessels in the United States 
than in all the world besides. This appears to me a 
statement the correctness of which cautious men may be 
excused for doubting ; bub the wonderful energy of the 
Americans in respect to internal navigation, will not for a 
moment be disputed by one who has counted the funnels 
at the wharfs of New Orleans and St. Louis, who has 
stood near the lighthouse which guides navigators on 
Lake Erie to the quays of Buffalo, who from the battery 
has caught even a glimpse of the bay of New York, and 
who when camping out on the bluffs of the Upper 
Missouri, has heard the snort of the high-pressure 
engine which heralds the white man to the wild Sioux ; 
and who has seen the humming-birds disturbed by 
a persevering stern-wheel on Georgian creeks, on 
streams so narrow that the pilot can pluck magnolia 
flowers, and the branches of forest trees form an 
arch overhead. The steamers which ply on the 
rivers and lakes of the United States are so totally 
different in appearance from those on our own coasts, 
that mere words can scarcely convey an accurate idea 
of them to the English mind. They are all slightly 
built, painted white, and provided with superb cabin 
accommodations. They are all steered, too, by profes- 
sional pilots, who stand in a lofty wheel-house on the 
upper deck, near the bow, and guide the engineer by 
means of a bell ; but here my general description must 
cease, for the low-pressure floating palaces of the older 
states and Atlantic seaboard are not more unlike the 
boats on the Thames than they are the high-pressure 
/ d 2 



36 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

vessels which navigate the Mississippi and its numerous 
tributaries. During 1853, there were 31 steam-boat 
accidents in the United States, killing 319 persons and 
wounding 158 ; but then almost all these occurred in 
the south and west, whilst in the north and east tra- 
velling by water is nearly as safe as among ourselves. 
And even on the great river itself, celebrated for fearful 
explosions and the little value attached to human life, a 
prudent man need not in general choose a dangerous 
vessel. The mail packets and regular traders may in 
nine cases out of ten be relied on as quite trustworthy. 
As these craft, however, are seldom repaired, but when 
found insecure, sold to unprincipled speculators who 
sail them till they sink or burst their boilers, no one 
should ever venture to take his passage in a steamer 
which does not belong to the usual line. Occasionally 
an unlooked-for accident does happen, attended with 
great loss of life ; but, in most instances, the boats 
which blow up are boats in which no person with his 
wits about him would for a moment trust himself. The 
number of independent states on these rivers, and the 
weakness of their executive governments, account for 
vessels of this class, owned by men of no character, and 
managed by desperadoes, being permitted to ply at all. 
Every year, however, alarming accidents occur on the 
western rivers, owing to the steamboats striking on 
snags in the channel, — logs of timber which get fixed 
in the bed of the stream, and perforate a vessel's bow in 
a second, when she is steaming against the current. As 
those constantly charge their position, the most skilful 
pilot cannot always avoid them ; and they form a source 
of danger which will only be entirely removed when the 
forests at the head waters of the Mississippi and Mis- 
souri fall beneath the settlers' axe. 

There is nothing which strikes the stranger more 
forcibly on reaching New York, than the various uses 
to which the marine steam-engine has been applied on 
the bay, Hudson, and East Eiver. It drives vessels of 
every conceivable model and size ; huge ocean mail 



FEKEY BOATS. 37 

packets ; lighter built ships, employed in the coasting 
trade ; river steamers of vast size, fitted up like palaces ; 
ferry-boats resembling moving bridges ; tugs which 
appear to be all paddleboxes together ; barges conveying 
piles of flour-barrels ; vessels, in short, of every descrip- 
tion and all possible dimensions. Then some are pro- 
pelled by side-wheels, some by a screw, and others by 
one wheel working at the stern ; there are low-pressure 
boats and high-pressure boats, boats like castles in point 
of height and size, and boats scarcely more elevated than 
rafts, all steaming along at full speed, and threading 
their way among the thousand sailing craft at anchor, in 
motion, or attached to the wooden quays. At a dis- 
tance, they look like sea-fowl of different shapes and 
plumage, pelicans and petrels of a variety peculiar to a 
newly-discovered world. 

The system of ferries in the United States is as 
nearly perfect as any human contrivance can well be, 
and contrasts very favourably with our clumsy plan. 
No heaving of ropes, no shouts of "back her," "stop 
her," no unearthly noises deafen the passengers, but the 
greatest order, regularity, and method prevail. The 
steamers are built to suit the wooden piers, — in fact, 
are bridges driven by an engine at the rate of fifteen 
miles an hour, with cabins on each side, and two 
roadways in the centre for carts and carriages, which 
drive in at one end and out at the other, and thereby reach 
their destination sooner than if there had been no 
dividing water over which to travel. The ferries near 
New York are admirably managed, and pay well. Tou can 
cross to Brooklyn every two or three minutes, at a cost 
of one cent, or a halfpenny, and to Staten Island for 
six-and-a-quarter cents. In the morning, these vessels 
are crowded with gentlemen smoking cigars and reading 
the newspapers, supplied to them by boys waiting on 
the quay. You pay the fare at a gateway on entering. 
I have crossed the East Eiver at midnight, with one 
hundred people. The ferry on the Susquehanna at 
Havre de Grace presents a somewhat remarkable example 



38 AMEBICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

of American ingenuity. The Philadelphia and Baltimore 
railroad there crosses the river, the locomotive and 
baggage wagon sliding off the rails on the line to rails 
laid on the upper deck of a huge ark of a steamboat, 
thus saving the delay and expense consequent on the 
removal of innumerable trunks. 

Many years ago, the Americans introduced screw- 
steamers of very light draught of water on shallow 
streams and on streams where side-wheels would have 
injured the banks. Most of the small vessels on narrow 
creeks and rivers, however, are propelled by one un- 
covered wheel at the stern, driven by long cranks from 
the engine at the centre of the ship. Even on the Ohio 
and Mississippi in summer, these boats in a great 
measure supersede the usual mail packets propelled by 
paddles, although their rate of speed is much less. 

The low-pressure river steamers which ply on the 
Hudson, the lakes, and in all the northern and western 
states of America, may, without doubt, be classed as 
superior in point of speed, elegance, comfort, and con- 
venience to any vessels in the world used for a similar 
purpose. They ought, long ago, to have been introduced 
on the Ehine, the Danube, the Ganges, and the Nile, on 
the Lakes of Constance, Geneva, Zurich, and Como, and 
other waters navigated by civilized nations. Tou find 
them, of course, of various sizes, and differing somewhat 
as to the internal arrangement ; but the finest are from 
250 to 350 feet long, have three decks, provide berths for 
from 300 to 500 passengers, and, in favourable circum- 
stances, average eighteen to twenty-two miles an hour. 
It is worth crossing the Atlantic to see the ' Francis 
Skiddy,' with her four funnels, enormous paddle- 
wheels, and brilliantly-lighted saloons, start on the 
North Eiver. The captain tingles his bell, the man at 
the gangway shouts " all aboard," and the huge vessel 
moves on in majestic silence, like an enormous animal 
of unwonted powers. These ships all draw little water, 
and are very sharp at the bow. The upper saloon, ex- 
tending from the stern to immediately below the wheel- 



STEAM BOATS. 89 

house within a few feet of the cutwater, is furnished 
with a sumptuousness which' surprises a European. 
Velvet-pile carpets, pianos, reading-tables, couches, and 
tete-a-tete chairs, make one fancy himself in a Parisian 
saloon ; the state-rooms enter from this splendid apart- 
ment, and, in the centre, the engine is boxed off by 
mahogany panelling. The captain's office, bar-room, 
ladies' drawing-room, pantries, &c, occupy the main- 
deck, while below is a public apartment extending from 
stem to stern, with beds all round, where the meals are 
served. Most of these vessels are pictures of neatness 
and order ; everything is kept scrupulously clean ; and, 
when proceeding at the rate of twenty miles an hour, 
you experience very little sound or motion. I have 
stood on the hurricane or upper-deck of one of these 
floating palaces, going so fast that the resistance of the 
air made it impossible to face the bow without shelter, 
and seen her, two minutes after the tinkling of a little 
bell, lie still as a phantom-ship on the water. No dis- 
agreeable sound was heard, no escaping steam deafened 
the passengers, no shouts and bawlings awakened 
sleepers as on board our British packets ; everything was 
done systematically, silently, and w^ell. I shall not soon 
forget a voyage in the ' Buck Eye State' from Buffalo 
to Detroit, on Lake Erie. She was to leave ,the former 
city late in the evening, and fortunately, I had secured 
a state-room early in the forenoon previous to the 
arrival of the eastern cars ; for, by eight o'clock, the 
captain's office was blockaded with people wanting 
sleeping apartments, and, for three hours afterwards, 
the deck presented a scene of confusion impossible to 
describe. No fewer than 600 passengers, having several 
tons of luggage, were striving to get near the steward's 
window for the chance of securing berths, elbowing 
each other without ceremony, vituperating agents 
who had sold them false tickets, and bewailing their 
hard lot in being compelled. to sleep on the floor. Then 
there were many groups of deck-passengers preparing 
their coarse blankets and buffalo-skins to keep out the 



40 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

dews of the night, men, women, and children, huddled 
together in every corner which promised protection 
from the wind. Amidships, and forward, the deck was 
covered with boxes, bales, barrels, carts, horses, cows, 
pigs, dogs, in fact, merchandise and live stock of every 
description. Such a scene as this may be witnessed 
each evening of the week at any port on the great 
eastern rivers or lakes of ]S"orth America. 

There is as much resemblance between a modern 
liiie-of-battle ship and JNToah's Ark as between any 
steamer now afloat on European waters and the high- 
pressure boats which ply in the valley of the Missis- 
sippi. They are simply barges, drawing from four to 
seven feet water, supporting, by means of upright beams, 
a long, narrow, wooden house, which consists of a saloon 
with state-rooms on each side, and ladies' apartments at 
the stern, separated from the principal cabin by folding- 
doors. Each of the sleeping-rooms has also another 
door opening on a gallery, where the passengers can 
lounge and enjoy the scenery. The roof of the saloon 
forms the hurricane- deck, a promenade unprotected by 
railings, and generally covered with soot and charcoal. 
Two rusty funnels and the wheel-house rise above it, 
and there you can enjoy an extensive prospect of the 
surrounding country. The engine works on the lower- 
deck without any covering, and is spread over as much 
space as possible, in order to prevent the vessel drawing 
too much water. The machinery of these ships costs 
very little money in comparison with that of low-pressure 
steamers, and, therefore, they prefer it, in a country 
where there is much enterprise and little capital. Be- 
hind the boilers, the cargo and deck-passengers are 
stowed away ; alongside of them are huge piles of fire- 
wood, which costs two dollars a cord. Stalwart negroes 
may be seen, night and day, feeding the fires unceas- 
ingly with pine-logs. During the hours of darkness the 
sparks, emanating from the funnels and floating in the 
air, are quite beautiful. They look like myriads of fire- 
flies. You scarcely see the hulls of the vessels at all, 



HiaH-PKESSURE PACKETS. 41 

the deck protruding greatly over the gunwale, so as to 
carry as much cotton, tobacco, and flour as possible. 
All the movements of the machinery are guided by the 
steersman, who communicates with the engineer by 
means of little bells. He tolls the great bell on the 
hurricane- deck once when he wishes the men to com- 
mence or to cease sounding, twice when he meets an- 
other steamer, and several times when he wishes to land 
or take in passengers. He will stop anywhere on the 
bank where the water is deep enough to enable him to 
run the steamer's bow up to the shore. On approach- 
ing a large town, or a place where freight has to be 
landed, the steam-pipe utters a terrific howl, like the 
roar of a dozen African lions. Numerous flat-boats, 
with wood for the steamers, lie at various points on the 
banks. When a packet gets short of fuel she is steered 
in shore, takes one of these barges alongside, and drops it 
astern when the wood has been put on board. Most of the 
Mississippian steamers are built at iSiew Albany, in Indiana, 
and last from three to five years. They cost 6000Z. to 
12,00QZ. The pilots get 120 dollars to 150 dollars per 
month. The crack boat, in 1853, was the ' Eclipse' of 
250-horse power, with berths for 400 passengers. It 
is not uncommon for the transient steamers going up 
the Arkansas or the Missouri to ring a bell and blow 
off steam three days before starting ; and, after they 
have really left their moorings, to remain a day or two 
at intermediate stations, looking out for freight and 
passengers. A man may be seen rushing down the 
levee at St. Louis, carpet-bag in hand, panting in his 
haste to catch a steamer which, in fact, has no intention 
of departing for a couple of days, or, at least, till her 
berths have been all taken. A stray Englishman, now 
and then in the western country, gets most decidedly 
" sold," and a natural display of virtuous indignation 
only makes his position doubly unpleasant. There is 
no medium between a United States mail-packet and a 
craft, the movements of which are as uncertain as those 
of the piratical rovers of Scandinavia. 



42 AMEBIC A AND THE AMEBIC AKS. 

On the Atlantic seaboard, as well as in the Missis- 
sippian valley, American steamers occasionally race, when 
tarred-wood, lard-barrels, Ohio hams, or any other com- 
bustible material which may be at hand, is thrown into 
the fires, and passengers, in the excitement of the mo- 
ment, encourage the reckless disregard of life and pro- 
perty shown by the officers. I, myself, was on board a 
vessel on the St. Lawrence, belonging not to the United 
States, however, but to Canada, when the deck was so 
hot that we could not walk on it, and gangs of men were 
employed to throw water from buckets over the timber 
near the engine, to prevent it breaking out in a blaze. 
But such scenes are, every year, becoming less frequent, 
and not one-half of the current stories in regard to 
them may be considered worthy of credence. Strange 
things, now and then, do occur on the western waters, 
but the credulity of European travellers offers a tempt- 
ing bait to Americans, and you often hear intelligent 
Englishmen relating tales about recent steamboat racing 
on the great river, which, in point of fact, have been stand- 
ing Joe Millers since the close of the revolutionary 
war. 

The rapidity with which railroads have of late years 
been formed from place to place throughout the United 
States, speaks volumes for the practical energy of the 
people. The number of miles ready in 1846 was 5700 ; 
at the close of 1854 there were 13,315 miles in opera- 
tion, making, with 12,029 miles uncompleted, an aggre- 
gate of 25,343 miles, over which we may expect traffic 
before another twelvemonth has elapsed. The great 
majority of these are single lines, constructed at as little 
expense as possible, and therefore very much less durable 
than ours. In some cases, the rails consist merely of 
wooden beams laid longitudinally, and shod with iron. 
In most instances they are light, and so badly graded, 
that an English engineer would consider it dangerous to 
travel on them ; but then the Americans do not run 
nearly so many trains per diem as we do, and therefore 
slighter materials suffice. By economising in the wear 



EAILEOADS. 43 

and tear of the plant, as well as of the carriages, they 
save money to the shareholders, however the public may 
suffer. Eight per cent, may be quoted as a fair average 
dividend in the New "World. Many lines for a time 
pay 10 and even 15 per cent., but being imperfectly 
constructed, require in the course of a few years to lay 
aside a large sum for repairs. The insufficient and 
ricketty-looking character of the bridges will strike a 
stranger from the old country. They are all of wood, 
and often have no parapet or side-walk. The Phila- 
delphia and Baltimore line crosses two wide estuaries, 
that of the Bush Biver, three-quarters of a mile broad, 
and that of the Gunpowder, upwards of a mile-and-a- 
half in width, on frail erections, over which a High- 
lander would scarcely venture to urge his pony. The 
excessive meanness of the station-houses will also attract 
notice. The majority of them are mere sheds, scarcely 
watertight, and generally not a little dirty. The Wash- 
ington terminus is a perfect pigsty ; that at Albany 
resembles the stables of a carter in poor circumstances ; 
here and there the train starts from the middle of a 
street, tickets being sold at a neighbouring shop, and in 
Georgia on one occasion I found the locomotive and cars 
waiting for us in the midst of a field of Indian corn, no 
edifice of any sort being in sight. All these imperfec- 
tions and inconveniences will, however, in course of 
time, be remedied ; the railroad works at Cleveland, on 
Lake Erie, already remind one in point of extent and 
system of those in England ; at Indianopolis, five com- 
panies have joined and built a handsome station, on the 
same plan as ours, and at the great Eastern cities im- 
proved termini are in progress. Very few American 
railroads have any fence ; consequently, cattle, horses, 
and pigs perpetually stray on the line and retard the 
engine. I have over and over again, too, seen a train 
stop to take in a passenger who waved his hat or hand- 
kerchief to the driver. Most persons know that the 
Americans do not use carriages of the same construction 
as those in Europe, but long cars, each holding about 



44 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

sixty people, and resting on two axletrees which branch 
oil' at the extremities to support eight wheels. There is 
l passage down the middle, and a door at both ends, so 
that you can walk about while the train is in motion. 
A portion of all recently built cars is partitioned off as 
a retiring-room and closet for ladies, and in hot weather, 
a barrel of ice-water is provided for the accommodation 
of passengers. At the stations, boys selling peaches, 
apples, nuts, gingerbread, lozenges, newspapers, guide- 
books, maps, and tracts, rush through the cars adver- 
tising their various wares. Every train in the United 
States can be stopped by the conductor, or even by any 
passenger who may be ill, by means of a cord carried 
along the roof of each carriage, and attached to the bell 
on the locomotive. The rate of speed even of the best- 
made lines, seldom exceeds twenty-five miles an hour ; I 
once took seven hours and a half to travel eighty-eight 
miles, during a cold, frosty night, in Alabama. On some 
tracks there are deep cuttings and innumerable plank 
bridges over ravines ; but generally speaking, the even- 
ness of the surface, the cheapness of the land, and the 
plentiful supply of timber, have enabled the Americans 
to construct tolerable railroads at very little expense. 
Of course they could not have built them at all without 
Irishmen, " the hewers of wood and drawers of water" of 
the present stirring age. The long cars are more noisy 
than our English carriages, and in a bright sun not so 
pleasant, on account of the number of their windows. 
On the other hand, they admit more fresh air in close 
weather, you see the country better from them, and 
over a well-laid track, they are smoother to travel in, 
always excepting at the curves, the abruptness of which 
would not be permitted by British law. Those of the 
Brie line, on the banks of the Delaware, try one's nerves 
unmercifully. The engineers work, not in the open 
air. exposed to all kinds of weather, as with us, but in a 
wooden house with large windows. The locomotives 
burn wood, and have consequently huge chimneys. Some 
of them have a path protected by a railing, on which 



EAILWAY TRAVELLING. 45 

the driver can walk round them when they are at full 
speed. They snort rather than whistle, as a signal of 
their approach. Travelling in the United States has 
gone ahead of the facilities offered by the railroad com- 
panies who have not improved, altered, and added as 
they ought to have done, but attempting to do a great 
business at little cost, have put in jeopardy the lives of 
passengers. Many have yet only a single line, although 
long ago the traffic on them required a double one ; 
stations have become too small, officials are over- 
worked and underpaid, and hence all sorts of irregularities 
daily occur. When I was first in America — in 1846 — 
railway accidents were almost unknown, whilst in 1853 
there were no fewer than 138, killing 234 persons and 
wounding 496. For this the public have themselves to 
blame. By exposing through the medium of the news- 
papers instances of carelessness and neglect, by fining 
the companies and punishing the officials with severity 
when lives have been lost, they might have, ere now, 
checked the recklessness of those on whom such a serious 
responsibility devolves. I have seen mere children in 
charge of a switch at the passing of express trains, and 
signal-lamps omitted to be placed on the last car when 
the engine had given way in a wood at night, with 
another one only a few miles behind it, and nearly one 
thousand passengers in the cars. The conductors on 
American railways have far too much in their power, 
from the habit which the people have acquired of tra- 
velling without purchasing tickets, and from so many 
small stations having no clerks. Several of these men 
have become rich with very suspicious suddenness, 
there being no check on them at all, either in the shape 
of bookkeepers or bills of fares. They charge the 
country people in many instances just what they please, 
make hay while the sun shines, and then " vamoose" to 
the new settlements beyond the Mississippi. 

Travellers do not require in the United States as in 
Great Britain to be constantly looking after their 
luggage. As soon as a man enters a station, a brass 



-1(5 AMEEICA AtfD THE AMEEICANS. 

ticket with, a number on it is attached by a leathern 
strap to his trunk, and a duplicate ticket handed to 
him, on presenting which at the end of his journey, he 
gets his portmanteau without the trouble of taking care 
of it, or the probability of its being lost. Many of the 
railroads now in the course of construction on the level 
prairie lands of the west, are what they call " air" lines, 
i.e., lines without any curves whatever. The Illinois 
Central, when completed from Chicago to Cairo, at the 
junction of the Mississippi with the Ohio, will form a 
straight line 475 miles long. This plan, it is believed, 
will effect a great saving in the wear and tear of engines, 
cars, and rails, but it by no means adds to the charm of 
travelling. They are a remarkable feature in the rapidly 
advancing civilization of those vast regions between the 
Missouri and the Lakes, developing the agricultural and 
mineral resources of the best parts of the Union, and 
encouraging the settler to cultivate lands which require 
neither clearing nor manure, but have hitherto been too 
far removed from the markets of the larger cities, on 
which the farmer depends. 

Let us pause here, and look on these " Gardens of the 
Desert," as they were only sixty years ago, when, un- 
disturbed by the snorting locomotive, and covered with 
herbage, they afforded pasture-ground for the buffalo, 
meadows painted with flowers, over which the prairie 
wolf scampered in pursuit of his prey. The Indian 
built his wigwam beneath the earthy temples of a pre- 
vious race ; the deer fed peacefully among the tall, thick 
grass ; the war-whoop summoned the chieftains to the 
ble, and the vultures to the field of blood; dense 
forests and wild lakes separated these rich deposits 
from the covetous eyes of the whites. Not a sail 
glanced on the rivers between the glades of the wood, 
not an axe injured the maples, not a plough turned up 
ilthy soil; " the Iron Mountain" remained un- 
covered beyond the "Father of Waters ;" the lead 
mines were unknown; the falls of St. Anthony drove 
no utilitarian mills, and noisy steamers did not interfere 



CHAKGES I1ST THE FAR WEST. 47 

with the red man's canoe. But the pioneer of the 
wilderness was at hand; the west wind had wafted 
towards his log-hut the aroma of flowers ; his keen eye 
detected a land flowing with milk and honey ; he gave 
the signal to his fellows, and the advanced guard of the 
Anglo-Saxons asserted their claim to the soil. For a 
time a bloody warfare raged; but the contest was 
unequal and not long. The buffalo crossed the Missis- 
sippi, townships were formed, the forests fell, and the 
Indian at the burial-place of his fathers sadly mur- 
mured — 

" They waste us, — ay — like April snow 

In the warm noon we shrink away ; 

And fast they follow, as we go 

Towards the setting day, — 

Till they shall fill the land, and we 

Are driven into the western sea." 



CHAPTEE IV. 

Political Constitution of the United States — Federalism — The Senate 
and House of Representatives — A Reception at the White House — 
The Presidential ofiice — Parties in America — Capacity of the people 
for self-government — The despotism of a pure democracy — Politics 
a trade — Political corruption. 

The United States of America constitute, as is well- 
known, a Federal Eepublic composed of thirty-one free 
and independent commonwealths, which have executives, 
judiciaries, and legislative assemblies of their own. The 
general government consists of a president, vice-presi- 
dent and cabinet council, aided by a numerous official 
staff, — and congress, of a senate and house of representa- 
tives, who meet in "Washington on the first Monday of 
December. Two members chosen by the legislature of 
each state constitute the senate. They hold office for 
six years, one-third of them being elected biennially, 
and the vice-president, ex officio, presides over their 
deliberations. The people elect the house of represen- 
tatives by a direct vote, a certain number being appor- 
tioned to each state after the census returns, made 
every ten years. The number is fixed at 234, so that 



48 AMEEICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

the constituencies and not the members increase with 
the population. The term of retaining the appoint- 
ment is two years. It is not my intention to enter 
upon an analysis of the American constitution, or to 
weary my readers with a detailed description of a 
political machine, which so far from being simple and 
capable of easy explanation, as we in Europe generally 
suppose, is one of the most complicated, yet ingenious 
and practically perfect that has ever been devised by 
the mind of man. It would be tedious to my readers 
were I to convey minute information here on such 
a theme; but no educated person living in this 
stirring age should neglect to study a subject so 
well worthy of consideration and so important in its 
bearings on the colonization and government of the 
world. In some countries federalism seems the only 
system which unites the prosperity and freedom of 
the parts with a vigorous nationality of the whole,', 
which reconciles a diversity of interests to a consolida- 
tion of power, which enables provinces differing from 
each other in climate, customs and laws, to form strong 
nations, influential in all quarters of the globe. How 
many empires have prematurely fallen because the 
natural operation of the central principle spreads dis- 
satisfaction in districts removed from the capital ! How 
often have municipal institutions saved commonwealths 
which, but for their conservative tendency, would have 
shared the fate of Assyria and of Rome ! " The federal 
system, however," says M. Gruizot, — I translate from his 
' History of Civilization of Europe,'—" is one which cer- 
tainly requires the highest development of reason, morality 
and civilization in the society for which it is intended." 
In a few vears the state of Canada, of South Africa, of 
Australia, and of New Zealand may render it necessary 
for Englishmen to pay a little more attention to a 
question which already begins to excite some degree of 
interest in these colonies. 

The congress of the United States attends only to 
matters which affect the well-being of the union in 



THE SENATE. 49 

general, such as relations with foreign governments, the 
sale and management of the public lands, the Mint, the 
Custom-house, the Post-office, and the military esta- 
blishments, leaving all affairs of a purely local nature to 
the senate and house of representatives of each indi- 
vidual state. The constitutions, laws, ordinances and 
arrangements of these separate commonwealths differ in 
many particulars. They agree only in one, viz., the 
universal recognition of the political equality of man. 
An American acquires his first experience of public life 
in. his native township or city ; then he obtains a seat in 
the legislature of the state, and his hopes are crowned 
when he is elected a member of the national congress at 
AVashington. 

It was my good fortune to be in that city during the 
discussion of the Oregon question, in the spring of 1846. 
Both houses were in session, and I heard several in- 
teresting debates. The senate meets in a semicircular 
chamber in the Capitol, the members occupying detached 
chairs and desks, and strangers a narrow gallery. Com- 
posed of men above forty years of age, who are elected 
for a term of six years, it is swayed neither by the rash 
counsels of youth, nor by the ever changing caprice of 
the people. The biennial change of one-third of its 
number on the other hand infuses new blood into its 
deliberations, and prevents it unduly retarding legisla- 
tion, while by no means rendering it subservient to the 
prevalent follies of the day. In all cases of difficulty, 
in all national emergencies, when democracy crosses the 
boundaries of common sense, and runs madly away from 
restraint, experience has taught the Americans to look 
to the senate for the salvation of the country. Trans- 
acting business quickly, details being managed in com- 
mittee, possessed of executive as well as legislative 
functions, the president being unable to act without its 
concurrence, its calm and habitual dignity contrasts 
remarkably with the excitement and hubbub too often 
witnessed in the house of representatives, when fifty 
members speak at once, resolutions are passed without 

E 



50 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

consideration, and personal rencontres take place before 
the speaker's chair ; it occupies a high place in public 
estimation, having more than once by the prudence and 
maturity of its .decisions, and by its firmness after the 
vote has been taken, preserved the integrity of the 
Union, and saved the nation from untold calamities. 
Thus, in 1848, by refusing to pass the belligerent 
resolutions of the other house, on the Korth-west 
Boundary dispute, the senators saved the Republic from 
unnecessarily embarking in a war with Great Britain, 
which must have proved disastrous to both powers ; and 
many years before, when President Jackson and the 
representatives wished to issue letters of marque, for 
reprisals against France in the matter of the spoliation 
claims, the senate, under the leadership of Henry Clay, 
by a large majority declined to sanction the measure. 
Mr. Mackay remarks,* that '" it is as far before the 
House of Lords, in all that enters into our conceptions 
of a deliberative assembly, as the House of Commons 
is before the House of Representatives." This I think 
is too strongly expressed; but certainly no one can 
enter the Chamber without being struck with the quiet 
manliness, the dignified bearing, the intellectual expres- 
sion of features, and the remarkable phrenological 
development of the men who direct the counsels of 
Young America. I listened with a kind of veneration 
to Mr. Benton, from Missouri, the personification of 
western ideas, a man singularly like our own lamented 
Professor "Wilson in personal appearance, and like him 
too in the characteristics of his mind ; to Mr. Cass, from 
Michigan, notwithstanding his anti-British tendencies 
and ill-natured remarks ; to John C. Calhoun, from South 
olina, although the advocate of southern rights and 
untiring champion of slavery ; and on the "Whig side to 
Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, with his strong practical 
Bense ; to Mr. Crittenden, one of the most accomplished 
statesmen in the country ; and finally to Daniel W r ebster, 

* "Western World," vol. i., p. 308. 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 51 

of whose wonderful oratory and profound legal know- 
ledge it would be a work of supererogation to say one 
word. He, and Calhoun, and Clay, have since been 
gathered to their fathers ; a constellation of great men 
disappeared all at once from that brilliant sky ; but 
although just at this moment the senate is not so 
remarkable in point of rhetoric, it retains, those ele- 
ments of mental and moral greatness which give 
stability to the institutions of the land. Let us cross 
the lobby, and, penetrating into another wing of the 
noble Capitol, enter the House of Representatives. 
How changed the scene ! The speaker sits vainly 
endeavouring to obtain order, an honourable gentleman 
in possession of the chair is addressing to a few in- 
timates around him a speech really intended for the 
edification of his constituents in the West, at all events 
wholly inaudible amidst the Babel of tongues which 
amazes the stranger. The other members are collected 
in groups laughing and talking aloud, reading the news- 
papers, walking up and down the floor, sitting chewing- 
tobacco with their legs on the backs of chairs, or pitch- 
ing wafers and paper pellets at each other out of the 
inkstands, i To make confusion worse confounded, it is 
the practice on finishing a despatch, or letter intended for 
the post-office, or for delivery in the building, to summon 
the boys employed as messengers by striking the flat 
side of the epistle with great force on the desk, and 
thereby producing a sound like the sharp report of a 
musket. One might as well harangue an audience below 
the precipice of Niagara, or during a heavy cannonading, 
as endeavour to make himself heard in such an inde- 
corous assembly. Tet now and then a comparative lull 
takes place, and during these angel's visits I heard the 
shrill tones of old John Quincy Adams, the graceful 
periods of "Winthrop, and the business-like statements 
of Joseph H. Ingersoll. There are clever men, and easy 
and correct speakers in this curious crowd, sitting side 
by side with persons of limited education and gifts, 
persons of similar taste and attainments to the honour- 

e 2 






52 AMEKICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

able member, who, during one of my visits began bis 
oration with the striking sentence, " Mr. Speaker, I am 
no lawyer, no, sir ; I am a harness maker, and proud to 
confess it." iAnd can we wonder at the vulgarity, and 
ignorance, and violence often displayed on the floor of 
the House of Representatives, when we consider the 
character of the constituencies, and the districts from 
whence the legislators come ; lumber men from the 
cold forests of Maine ; demagogues sent by the low 
Irish of New York ; crossbreeds between Spaniards and 
Indians from the swamps of Florida; French Creoles 
from New Orleans ; wild frontier settlers from the Red 
River ; stolid Germans from Upper Pennsylvania ; pio- 
neers of the wilderness from the banks of the Missouri ; 
Saxons and Dutch, Italians and Celts, a motley repre- 
sentation of nations, peoples, and tongues, as varied as 
that which surrounded Napoleon in the zenith of his 
success, or visited London during the Exhibition of 1851. 
Then the eight dollars per diem allotted to each repre- 
sentative, enable men to enter the House who are not 
independent ; western farmers, as well as New York 
merchants, rough mechanics, no less than the planters 
of the South. All ranks and conditions of life, all em- 
ployments, professions and trades, may find themselves 
represented in this deliberative chamber, to which we may 
appropriately apply the language of Burke to the Na- 
tional Assembly of France : "It has not even the phy- 
siognomy and aspect of a grave legislative body — nee 
color imperii, nee from erat idla senatns" Yet, uncouth 
and singular as are its manners, it is a faithful mirror of 
the country itself; among backwoodsmen in frieze 
garments, and seedy-looking individuals whose coat 
want buttons, and are rather the worse of the wear, 
may be found those who have attended the levees at St. 
James', and danced in the Tuileries with the court 
dames of France — men of polish and accomplishments, 
who, in troublous times, make themselves heard above 
the din caused by rudeness and ignorance, and who, too 
few in number to give a general tone to the deliberations. 



i 



RECEPTION AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 53 

once and again, by the force of talent and superior 
education, recal the assembly to order and self-respect. 
^ During my stay at Washington, I attended a reception 
given at the White House by President Polk, and had 
the pleasure of conversing for sometime with that 
gentleman. ISTo ceremony is observed at the levees of 
the chief magistrate of the great republic. I drove up 
to the door in a very shabby cab, sent the only servant 
in the hall, an Irishman, whose livery seemed to have 
been made for his predecessor in office, into the room 
for a friend, a member of congress, and was by him 
introduced to Mr. Polk and the other notables present. 

The president and vice-president of the United 
States, are elected for a term of four years, by an elec- 
toral college, composed of delegates from the several 
states, according to their population. These are chosen 
by a vote of the people. Ranke, in his History of the 
Popes* remarks that "the choice of a pontiff, like 
many other promotions, was gradually made to depend 
on who had the fewest enemies, rather than on who 
possessed superior merit." Exactly the same thing may 
be said about the choice of a candidate for the presi- 
dential chair by the respective parties in America. They 
nominate not a statesman like Henry Clay, or Daniel 
Webster, or John C. Calhoun, who, in the course of a 
lifetime devoted to political struggles, have made many 
foes as well as many friends, whose sentiments are too 
publicly known on minor points, in regard to which 
there is difference of opinion in the same ranks, but 
persons of less notoriety, whose views on some ques- 
tions no one knows, and who will command the undi- 
vided votes of the party, as being simply Democrats or 
Whigs. The contest in 1844, was between Henry Clay 
and James K. Polk ; the former one of the most illus- 
trious politicians of his age ; the latter an individual of 
whom few had even heard until his election, shortly 
before, as speaker of the Lower House. The veteran 

* Bonn's " Standard Library," vol. ii., p. 107. 



51 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

Kentuekian would not have been afraid of the talents of 
Calhoun; Yan Buren's reputation might have been 
turned against himself; but no sooner had Clay been 
informed who his opponent was to be, than he said, " I 
am beaten," for he knew that the comparatively unknown 
candidate would command the suffrage of every Locofoco 
in the land. But whilst it has become almost impos- 
sible for a leading statesman to obtain the highest 
honour which his country can bestow, that dignity has 
of late been more than once awarded to military heroes. 
The Americans, notwithstanding their republican simpli- 
city, and dislike to standing armies, are in common with 
other nations, too easily dazzled by the glory " of con- 
quest, and blinded by the excitement of war. The 
martial exploits of General Harrison gave him, in 1840, 
an unwonted majority ; in 1848, Zachary Taylor, com- 
monly called " Old Eough and Ready," although no 
politician, triumphed over his adversary, as the conqueror 
of Buena Yista, whose achievements in arms gratified the 
vanity of a people thirsting for fame. No Whig could 
refuse to vote for him on account of his obscurity as a 
statesman, whilst a few democrats tendered to him their 
suffrages as the Wellington of the West. In 1852, 
both candidates were general officers ; neither of them had 
figured in the senate, but Pierce, as well as Scott, had 
fought in the Mexican war. 

Political parties in the United States seem, to a 
European, so much divided and subdivided, and the 
various sections assume names, so apparently unmean- 
ing and strange, that he gives tip in despair the attempt 
to understand their differences. Many Englishmen have 
lived years in New York, without in the least compre- 
hending the distinction between Whigs and Democrats, 
Federalists and Locofocos, Ereesoilers and Native Anie- 
ns, Barnburners and Old Hunkers, Hardshells and 
shells. These represent shades of opinion on par- 
ticular questions, which we shall not now stay to 
discuss ; for every citizen of the republic, whatever 
may be his sentiments on certain measures, belongs to 



POLITICAL PIETIES. 55 

some extent to one of the two primary divisions of 
"Whigs or Democrats. The point originally contested 
between them was the rights and authority of indi- 
vidual States in relation to the Federal government. 
The latter were very jealous of the central power ; 
the former inclined to give greater consolidation to 
the united republic by encroaching on the prerogatives 
of the separate commonwealths. This subject, however, 
now seldom occupies public attention, although the 
great parties are never at a loss to find questions on 
which to fight their battles and measure their strength. 
The "Whigs may be styled the Conservatives of the 
New World, their principal support being derived from 
the rich merchants, the old planters, the monied in- 
terest, and the manufacturers ; whilst the Democrats 
rely on the tradesmen, the operatives, and the immense 
population employed in cultivating the soil. 

It is impossible for any one to study the institutions 
and past history of the United States, without confess- 
ing the remarkable capacity of the people for self- 
government. In the West, as well as on the Atlantic 
seaboard, churches, schools, hospitals, benevolent 
societies, newspapers, libraries, and court-houses keep 
pace with the numerical and material growth of the 
community ; legislative ability seems inherent in the 
race ; and, notwith standing the enormous immigration of 
ignorant persons from Europe, no fewer than 285,000 of 
whom landed in 1853, at New York alone, not only has 
government been able to perform its functions, but the 
country has obtained a high place amongst the nations 
of the earth. I can conceive of no spectacle displaying 
in a greater degree the elements of grandeur, than 
twenty-three millions of men, educated, intelligent, and 
industrious, enjoying -the freest political privileges, and 
yet without the presence of a standing army, setting 
an example of order to the civilized world. 

It remains for me to notice some things in con- 
nexion with American politics, which to an observant and 
thoughtful Englishman, however partial to his trans- 



56 AMEBICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

atlaatie brethren, do not appear worthy of praise, and of 
which many great and good men in the republic speak 
with reluctance and regret. 

Twenty-two hundred years ago Aristotle observed that 
a democracy has many striking points of resemblance to 
a tyranny, and Mr. Burke, writing on the same subject, 
remarks, # that " the majority of the citizens in a republic 
is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon 
the minority." Conversant as we are in this country 
with the conflicts between Avhigs, tories, and radicals, 
with the excitement of election contests and the bitter- 
ness of political strife, we have no idea how severe and 
exacting a despot is Party in the United States. It per- 
mits no individual action, exacts a slavish obedience, and 
represses freedom of opinion with as high a hand as 
Marshal Eadetsky or the Russian Czar. Should a man, 
no matter how talented and valuable as a leader, refuse 
to give up his own private views at the bidding of this 
tyrant, and decline thus to be dragged at his chariot- 
wheels, he loses for ever his weight and influence, listens 
to the execrations of thousands who formerly hung on 
his lips, and is hurled ignominiously from office and 
poAver. It is a strange anomaly that in free America, a 
politician cannot, without degradation, think and vote as 
he pleases, but must stand by the banners of whiggery 
or locofocoism through good repute and bad repute, in 
contests of which he disapproves no less than in those 
which commend themselves to his ideas of right. Such 
a bondage naturally tends to deaden the influence of 
principle, and corrupt the moral sense. It accounts for 
some episodes in American history not very creditable 
cither to the legislature orto the people. In this particular, 
the better informed amongst our transatlantic friends 
know right well that there is far more liberty enjoyed 
under the shadow of England's old time-honoured 
monarchy than in the model republic, with all its respect 
for the individual rights of man. Nothing mortifies 

* " Reflections on the Revolution in France," 



THE DESPOTISM OE DEMOCRACY. 57 

Jonathan more than to hear a person bronght up under 
a constitutional government in Europe complain of 
tyranny in the working of institutions, so often vaunted 
as the freest on earth. Again, there exists in the United 
States a class of men who make politics a trade, who fre- 
quently manage to obtain an ascendency in the national 
and the state legislatures, and whose acts impress 
strangers very unfavourably in regard to their fellow- 
countrymen in general. These men are always ready 
to raise a popular cry to subserve their own ends ; they 
clamour for justice and principle, whilst they want the 
emoluments of office and the distribution of patronage. 
No doubt every American is to some extent a politician, 
and takes some degree of interest in the government of 
his country; but in too many instances legislation gets 
into the hands of the body in question, and then the 
upright, intelligent citizens, disgusted with their pro- 
ceedings, keep aloof from public matters altogether, and 
in so doing, of course, increase the evil which they 
deplore. Burke, in characterising the National Assembly 
of France, in the revolutionary times, says, " There were 
distinguished exceptions ; but the general composition 
was of obscure provincial advocates, of stewards of petty 
local jurisdictions, country attorneys, notaries, and the 
whole train of the ministers of municipal litigation, the 
foment ers and conductors of the petty war of village 
vexation." This description applies but too forcibly to 
the many legislative bodies in America. Often have I 
heard the fact mourned over, but no remedv seemed to 
suggest itself to those who spoke of it, except the some- 
what violent one advocated by Dick the butcher, in King 
Henry the Sixth, who, addressing Jack Cade and his 
associates, exclaims, " The first thing we do, let's kill all 
the lawyers." * The British House of Commons, with 
all its faults, represents the worth and intelligence, and 
commands the respect of the nation. To obtain a seat 
in it is the highest ambition of many who would consider 

* King Henry the Sixth, Part II., Act iv., Scene ii. 



58 AMEBIC A AND THE AMEBIC ANS. 

it no honour whatever to associate with American repre- 
sentatives. In the United States there are both mer- 
chants and planters who profess it beneath their dignity 
to engage in political contests ; we all know that in 
England the noblest and proudest in the land require 
no inducement to offer their services to constituencies, 
and to secure a place in the legislature of their country. 
But in the Great Republic a class of men have sprung 
up, who devoted to a party '-ocracy as unprincipled as the 
autocracies of Europe, and intimately acquainted with 
the machinery which guides it, exercise a paramount 
influence in legislation, regard state offices as belonging 
to them by right, and make politics a simple affair, not 
of principle, but of dollars. I have heard good men and 
true on the other side of the Atlantic apply to posts 
under their government, language very similar to that 
used by Dr. Chalmers, # when he characterised another 
institution as " a mere congeries of offices, by which to 
uphold the influence of patrons, and subserve the politics 
or the views of a worthless partisanship." This leads 
me further to notice an abuse which I sincerely regret 
to say has crept into legislation on the Western Continent, 
and which I cannot describe better than by quoting the 
first paragraph of an article upon it in Harper's 
Magazine, one of the ablest periodicals published in the 
Union :f " Political corruption — why has it become i 
jest and a bye-word amongst us — a settled phrase de 
noting a fixed fact in our history — a fact now conceded 
by all parties, and which no intelligent man ever thinks 
of denying ? We hear it from all sides. There is poli- 
tical corruption, and that too on the broadest scale — 
corruption in all parties — corruption in leading partisans 

—corruption in political measures — corruption in poli- 
tical services — corruption in the dispensation of offices 
— corruption in the management of the press — corruption 

among almost the entire class of those who maybe called 
politicians by profession — a growing corruption, or, what 

* "Life," by Dr. Hanna, vol. iv., p. 243. 
t December, 1853.— Editor's Table. 



POLITICAL CORRUPTION. 59 

is equally bad, a growing indifference to corruption 
among the masses of the people." This is startling 
language, but truth compels me to say that it was a 
common theme of conversation and a common subject of 
complaint in intelligent circles during my last visit to 
the United States. Mr. Mackay # refers to " the pro- 
pensity for jobbing discovered by the federal authorities," 
and adds, " indeed, in this respect, I have heard several 
Americans declare that they believed their own govern- 
ment to be the most corrupt on earth." This appears 
to me too strong a condemnation, but the disease prevails 
in the state legislatures and in the councils of the various 
cities just as much as at Washington. No one in New 
York seemed for a moment to doubt the alleged jobbing 
and trickery resorted to in obtaining privileges from the 
civic rulers. Leading men of every shade in politics 
informed me that offices and favours were there openly 
bought and sold ; that aldermen and councilmen accepted 
these situations for the avowed purpose of getting 
quickly rich ; and that jobs every week were there per- 
petrated with impunity which in this country would 
bring to disgrace every person connected with them. 
I believe that as great corruption exists in the govern- 
ment of that city as was ever brought to light in the 
days of the Stuarts : and what is more, I have heard 
people defend it on the ground that in America all can 
at one time or other share in the plunder, whereas in 
Europe public robbery was the privilege of the few. 
Within the limits of that municipality murders are 
of frequent occurrence, prisoners constantly escape, and 
highway robberies are neither few nor far between, whilst 
the police force in 1853 cost more than a million of 
dollars. In 1852 both sections of the democratic party 
combined to elect Franklin Pierce president of the United 
States. No sooner had he assumed the reins of power 
than they again quarrelled about the division of the 
spoils, and ever since a most unseemly controversy has 

* "Western World," vol. i., p. 264. 



60 AMEEICA AND THE AMEEICAKS. 

rasred in regard to emoluments and offices. A few years 
ago the same parties made a stalking-horse of principle ; 
but now they have thrown aside all disguises, and openly 
struggle for salaries. "The spoils cabinet," "the dis- 
appointed applicants," "the eager expectants," "the 
hungry politicians ;" such are some of the epithets which 
met my eye in all American newspapers, which were 
bandied about in congress, which headed placards, and 
which indicated painfully the state of feeling in America 
after the formation of the present cabinet. We have in 
Great Britain many abuses to deplore ; but let us be 
thankful that taken as a whole, there does not exist a 
more noble-minded and upright body of men than those 
who constitute our Houses of Parliament. 



CHAPTEE Y. 

Payment of representative members — Frequent change of functionaries 
— Salaries of public servants too low — Stump oratory — The Army and 
Navy — Desire for territorial aggrandisement — Its advantages and dis- 
advantages — Destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race — Permanency of demo- 
cratic institutions in America — National prospects of the United 
States. 

It is not for me to say how far the evils alluded to in 
the preceding chapter may be attributable to two prac- 
tices which have been adopted in America, but of which 
many persons in that country do not approve, viz., the 
payment of members, and the change of subordinate 
officials at the beginning of every presidential term. It 
is admitted, on all hands, that the remuneration given 
to legislators introduces into the state and national 
mblies a host of adventurers, chiefly needy lawyers, 
who prefer getting a livelihood in this manner to seeking 
it in an industrial pursuit ; who reflect no honour on the 
councils of their country, and who repel men of integrity 
and standing from becoming candidates for public 
favour; but then to abolish the fee, say the Americans, 
would be to disqualify poor men from taking office, and 



CHAKGE OF FUNCTIONARIES. 61 

would thereby violate the democratic constitution of the 
States. I have travelled with senators, resembling in 
personal appearance and in dress very much the carters 
whom you meet in Ireland, men with unwashen and un- 
shaven faces, long, threadbare, frieze great coats, and 
hats without shape or colour. In some parts of the 
country, these are considered marks of republican sim- 
plicity, and a man to secure popular favour must not 
allow his wife or daughters to appear in expensive attire, 
or, as they express it, in "loud fixins." The change of 
all functionaries holding office under the general govern- 
ment, when a new president assumes the reins of 
power, is another grievance of which many Americans 
complain. They admit the propriety of appointing an- 
other cabinet and members of government whose 
opinions coincide with those of the chief ruler, but see 
no reason why all the postmasters in the Jacksons and 
Jeffersonvilles throughout the Union should be turned 
out every four years, or just when they are becoming ac- 
quainted with the duties of their situations ; w^hy a 
democrat may not make quite as good an exciseman as 
a whig ; or why it is necessary that the collector of 
customs, at New York, should be a Softshell and a Loco- 
foco. They think that this system creates a class who 
carry on a trade in politics, who, out of office, keep the 
country in a ferment, and who, in office, constitute a 
mischievous bureaucracy. This principle, too, in some 
cases, has been applied to the appointment of judges, 
and, of course, cannot fail to impair the efficiency and 
lower the dignity of the bench. It may be urged, how- 
ever, in favour of the plan, that it gives the whole com- 
munity access to places of trust under government, 
and prevents the establishment of a permanent body of 
functionaries like that which exercises such an injurious 
influence in Prussia and France. I have given both 
sides of the argument on these two vexed questions, and 
leave my readers to form their own conclusions. « 

It appears to me, after a careful examination of the 
duties performed by the principal officers under the 



(32 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

United States' Government, that their salaries are much 
too small. It is, no doubt, necessary in a republic to 
guard against ostentation, and to husband the public 
resources ; but it is also necessary to give men such 
remuneration for their services as will remove them 
from all temptation to act dishonourably in a pecuniary 
point of view, and as will offer an inducement to talent. 
The President gets 25,000 dollars, or 5000Z. ; the mem- 
bers of his Cabinet 8000 dollars, or 1600Z. each ; the 
Judges of the Supreme Courts 4500 dollars each, or 
dOOl.; and the Ministers Plenipotentiary at Foreign 
Courts 9000 dollars, or 1800Z. Since these sums were 
fixed America has become a great and wealthy nation, 
and some of her wisest men think that they might be 
very considerably increased with advantage to the public 
interest, both at home and abroad. 

The historian, Hallam, treating of the tranquillity 
prevalent in Venice, and, comparing it with the feuds 
between Gruelf and Grhibelin in the republics of Tuscany, 
observes,* that " the wildest excesses of faction are less 
dishonouring than the stillness and moral degradation . 
of servitude." Pew liberal men will deny the truth of 
this proposition ; but still it must be felt that dema- 
gogueism and stump oratory, the inflammatory speeches 
of persons whom Penimore Cooper well describes as " fel- 
lows, whose mouths are filled with liberty and equality, 
and whose hearts are overflowing with cupidity and 
gail,"t have done not a little to bring into disrepute 
public affairs on the American Continent. The harangues 
of such agitators, and the wild doings of mobs under 
their control, reported in European newspapers, afford 
arguments to the opponents of popular rule, and 
strengthen the position of despots. In reality, they do 
not at all represent the feelings of the people, or the 
social state of the republic ; but, besides doing a world 
of mischief in their own country, they afford foreigners 
an opportunity of attacking its institutions. 



* it 



State of Europe during the Middle Ages," vol. i., p. 323 



t i ' The Spy, " chapter xxiv. 



STUMP ORATORS. 63 

Englishmen, accustomed to the plain, practical, and 
business-like addresses for which the House of Commons 
is distinguished, -will not be easily reconciled to the 
elaborate essays delivered in Washington, or to the 
inflated superabundance of imagery and bombastic pero- 
rations which characterise American oratory. Both in 
the halls of legislature and in assemblies of the people, 
speakers use the most extravagant metaphors, wander 
far away from the subject under consideration into the 
fields of fancy, and, with that extraordinary fluency 
which distinguishes the political population, entertain 
their auditors with a string of highflown words, as 
meaningless as they are inflated. There is much more 
freedom of discussion, and much more sound logic in 
the public meetings of Great Britain than in those of 
the United States. I attended several during both my 
visits to the "Western Continent, and must candidly con- 
fess that the proceedings of all, the self-adulation, the 
partisan flattery, the personalities, and the discursiveness 
of those who took part in them, left a very unpleasant 
impression on my mind. I have preserved a passage in 
the harangue of James T. Brady, a noted New York 
lawyer, at a gathering of the National Democrats, held 
last November in Metropolitan Hall in Broadway, and 
give it here as a specimen of the nonsense which American 
stump orators deliver, and American audiences cheer. 
After a violent personal attack on the leading men 
amongst the Eree Soilers, and especially on John Van 
Buren, he thus proceeded to excite the sympathies of 
the two thousand citizens before him, against the father 
of that gentleman : — " Van Buren ! I dislike the name. 
There was one President of the United States who for 
ever dishonoured and disgraced our national flag. 
Eemember the burning of the ' Caroline ! ' Had the 
American people been consulted on that memorable 
occasion, they would have raised a mighty shout of 
freedom, a shout which would have shaken the earth to 
its very centre, disturbed the order of God's universe, 
and made this planet ofours fly out of its proper orbit 



G4i AMERICA AND THE AMEBIC AKS. 

to describe an erratic course in the regions of infinite 
space." 

It is well known that the standing army of the 
United States numbers only about 12,000 men, whose 
duty is principally to guard the forts on its extensive 
frontiers. The people everywhere profess a repugnance 
to such a force being made more numerous, as a grievous 
misapplication of profitable labour, as contrary to the 
theory of a well-ordered republic, and as dangerous to 
the national liberties. You hear them frequently on 
this subject, using almost the identical words Avhich Mr. 
Pulteney addressed to the House of Commons in 1732 ; 
yet they have quite a mania for military distinctions, 
delight in playing at soldiers, and show anything but a 
peaceful spirit when they imagine an insult to the star- 
spangled banner. A successful general becomes at once 
a national idol ; every third man you meet rejoices in 
the appellation of captain or colonel, and congress have 
on several occasions displayed a singular eagerness for 
war. The officers of the regular army must all be 
educated, and pass the examination at the "West Point 
Academy, on the Hudson ; no soldier can rise from the 
ranks to a command, as under our monarchical insti- 
tutions, and competent witnesses have frequently tes- 
tified to the superiority of the British private's condition 
to that of the rank and file in America. * There are 
sixty-four ships of war on the Navy List belonging to 
the general government ; but a great many of these are 
old, ill-constructed, and unserviceable. The "Western 
members oppose an addition to their numbers, and an 
increased vote to secure their efficiency; but I think a 
feeling is gaining ground in the country, that the 
present state of this force is not worthy of a nation 
which, besides being rich and powerful at home, exercises 
a mighty influence in every* quarter of the globe. The 
Americans are a nautical people, and, possessed of a 
powerful navy, they might promote the cause of freedom 

* See "Autobiography of an English Soldier in the U. S. Army," 
vol. ii., p. 307. 



TERRITORIAL EXTENSION. 65 

and good government in regions where they are as yet 
comparatively little known. But it is to the numerous 
and well-trained militia that the nation trusts for the 
preservation of order, the security of property, and the 
defence of its homes in time of need. This force, in 
1853, was composed of no fewer than 2,284,732 men, 
and from what I have seen of them in the various States, 
I must say that many regular troops in the pay of 
European Governments, will not compare with them in 
point of discipline or martial demeanour. We all know 
what their fathers did in the revolutionary war, and I 
am persuaded that the combined armies of the older 
world, Cossacks, Croatians, and Gauls, could no more 
endanger the independence of America, than they 
could drain the Mississippi or submerge the Alle- 
ghanies. 

The martial spirit to which I have alluded, manifests 
itself in the thirst for territorial extension and aggran- 
disement, which so great a proportion of the people 
display. When in Washington, some years ago, I was 
surprised to observe the eagerness with which many 
politicians spoke of annexing Oregon and marching up 
to the Russian boundary ; Cuba is now regarded as a 
certain acquisition as soon as events warrant its seizure ; 
the north casts a covetous eye over the fertile plains of 
Canada West and the navigation of the St. Lawrence; 
and the south points in return to the magnificent table- 
lands of Mexico, to its mineral wealth and delightful 
variety of climate, all of which would be turned to 
account, were the land possessed by an active and vigorous 
race. Narrating his experience in the last named 
country, Mr. Bayard Taylor # says, " The natives acknow- 
ledged our greater power and intelligence as a nation, 
without jealousy, and with an anticipation rather than a 
fear, that our rule will one day be extended over them." 
We have all heard of the proposition to annex the 
Sandwich Islands, and of the negotiations being carried 
on in Central America. It is, of course, the mob 

* "El Dorado," vol. ii., chap. ix. 
E 



G(5 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

orators and violent partisans who excite and encourage 
most this insatiable desire of new possessions ; but even 
amongst moderate and judicious men, a strong convic- 
tion exists that the entire northern division of America 
will in time belong to the Confederation, and their views 
may be expressed by the well-known couplet: 

" No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, 
For the whole boundless Continent is ours." 

Whilst there are those who make acquisition of terri- 
tory a mere stepping-stone to power, and whilst many 
vapour about Mexico and Canada from a national vanity, 
it is undeniable that the annexation of Oregon, Texas, 
and California, has in one respect been the means of 
strengthening the foundations of the Union. Had not 
these vast regions afforded an outlet to the wild, scheming 
spirits who are so numerous in the other States, the 
cause of order and good government might long ago have 
been endangered by their restless ambition. At the 
mines and in the chase they have found that excitement 
which in other circumstances might have shown itself in 
attempted revolutions or in marauding expeditions likely 
to involve their country in war. 

However unjustifiable this lust of empire may be in 
itself, let us not forget that besides acting as a safety- 
valve for the intense excitability of the Americans, it 
tends to promote the civilization of the world, and to 
fulfil the mission of the Anglo- Saxon race. Only two 
hundred years have elapsed since the ' Mayflower ' cast 
anchor on the deserted shores of Cape Cod ; then the 
mighty forests were undisturbed, and the " Father of 
Waters" bore only the canoe of the Indian voyaging to 
his hunting-ground or fleeing from his foes ; gigantic 
trees covered the wheatlands of Ohio, and where Lowell 
now stands, on the banks of the Merrimac, the sachems 
of the red-men convened their warriors, and presided at 
the midnight dance. The little company of the Pilgrim 
Fathers landed at New Plymouth, a band of persecuted 
but upright men ; they brought with them those great 



ANGLO-SAXOK ENTERPRISE. 67 

ideas which, lay the best foundation for national power, 
and we now hail them as the founders of a common- 
wealth greater than that ruled by the senatus jpo^ulusque 
in the palmiest days of Rome. The population of the 
United States at present amounts to more than 
twenty-three millions, and her territory extending from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, comprises three-and-a-quarter 
millions of square miles. Since 1840, the increase of 
the inhabitants has been six millions, or thirty-five per 
cent., a ratio to which the history of mankind presents 
no parallel. These surprising results may be traced en- 
tirely to the enterprise of Anglo-Saxons. In the 
Mississippian valley, no less than on the St. Lawrence, 
the French had settled a hundred years before them ; 
the richest lands and best watercourses, the city sites 
and seaports were all theirs ; but they have long ago 
yielded the title of superiority to a race who seem to be 
the. only real colonists, and to whose industry, energy, 
and perseverance civilization owes a series of triumphs 
more wonderful than the campaigns of Napoleon or the 
victories which carried Alexander from the plains of 
Thessaly to the confines of Hindostan. Australia and 
New Zealand in fifty years may be as great as the 
United States ; we see province after province in Asia 
bowing to this influence, and surely we may, without 
violating probabilities, suppose that another century may 
witness its two representatives meeting to celebrate their 
successes under the great wall of China. All men ac- 
quainted with the tendency of political events out of 
this continent, look forward to an extension of our race 
and language over regions now either unexplored or 
groaning under misrule too flagrant to last. Every 
year thousands of emigrants leave our shores to people 
lands at the antipodes, and the younger sons of this 
energetic family, as if North America were too small 
for them, carry the star-spangled banner to the regions of 
everlasting ice, and amid the sunny islands of the 
Caribbean sea. "When we consider that the revolutionary 
war only terminated in 1783, it is remarkable to observe 



6S AMERICA AM) THE AMERICANS. 

the influence which the United States has already 
acquired among the nations of the earth. Dr. Johnson 
in 1775 published a pamphlet in answer to the Resolu- 
tions and Address of the American Congress, entitled 
' ; Taxation no Tyranny." In it there occurs this re- 
markable passage : — " The numbers of the Americans are 
at present not quite sufficient for the greatness which, in 
some form of government or other, is to rival the ancient 
monarchies ; but by Dr. Franklin's rule of progression 
they will in a century and a quarter be more than equal 
to the inhabitants of Europe. "When they are thus 
multiplied, let the princes of the earth tremble in their 
palaces. If they should continue to double and to 
double, their own hemisphere could not contain them." 
How strikingly illustrative of these words are the 
position which the United States has on several occasions 
lately assumed, the encouragement which she has given 
to European patriots, her conquests in Mexico, and her 
expedition to Japan! " There is nothing," wrote Lord 
Jeffrey* to a transatlantic friend in 1818, " and never 
was anything so grand and promising as the condition 
and prospects of your country, and nothing I can con- 
ceive more certain than that in seventy years after this, 
its condition will be by far the most important element 
in the history of Europe." All unprejudiced men will 
now readily admit that there is every probability of this 
prediction being conclusively verified. In the short 
space of seventy-eight years, America has risen to the 
rank of a first-rate power, whose merchant- ships are in 
every sea, whose influence is felt in the old world as 
well as the new, and whose flag commands the respect 
of kings and emperors. 

Some writers have indulged in much speculation re- 
garding the continuance of the Union and the perma- 
nency of democratic institutions on the other side of 
the Atlantic, and more than one have strangely con- 
founded the two questions together, although the main- 

* " Life," by Lord Cockburn, vol. ii.,fp. 183. 



CONTINUANCE OF THE UNION. 69 

tenance of Republican government has nothing whatever 
to do with territorial arrangements. The people may- 
still maintain supreme authority, whether the Confedera- 
tion exist in its present form, or resolve itself into a 
number of independent but smaller commonwealths. 
The preservation of the Union may be endangered by 
causes even now at work, though lost sight of in the 
midst of general prosperity, in the race for riches, in 
the settlement of new provinces, and in that resistless 
tide of progression which distinguishes the youthful 
nation. The opposition of material interests, the undue 
extension of territory, the local jealousy of federal inter- 
ference, the diversity of race and sentiment, and above 
all, the existence of slavery, are elements of peril which 
already threaten, and at some future day may rend 
asunder the Republic. On the other hand, an intense 
feeling of nationality, the connecting of the various 
states and climates by means of railroads and telegraphs, 
the singular skill with which the constitutional machine 
has been contrived, and the advantage to all concerned 
manifestly derived from a certain amount of concentra- 
tion of power, afford no slight guarantees for the per- 
petuity of the present system. But be this as it may, 
it appears to me that a careful consideration of the facts 
of the case will justify all reasonable men in looking 
forward to democracy as the settled and established order 
of things on the North American continent. Every 
American not only thinks his own form of government 
the best, but he believes that his countrymen are the 
chosen instruments for working out a great problem in 
the political history of nations, for manifesting to man- 
kind the ability of a free educated people to govern 
themselves, for striking the first blow in a conflict which'' 
must inevitably result in the overthrow of monarchical 
and aristocratic power. He has firm confidence in his 
mission as well as in his principles, and, to use the words 
of Mr, Mackay,* " Unless the people can be persuaded 

* " Western World," vol. iii., p. 333. 



70 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

to do violence to their feelings, tastes, habits, and asso- 
ciations, and to adopt institutions incompatible with 
their position and circumstances, there is no fear of 
democracy in America." Its permanence, however, 
mainly depends on the moral worth and intellectual en- 
lightenment of the masses, on the vigorous support 
given to those noble monuments of public wisdom which 
reflect already so much honour on the United States. 
An uneducated people cannot for any length of time 
hold the reins of authority ; the very existence of Ee- 
publicanism in America, all competent witnesses testify, 
is dependent upon the common schools. On this sub- 
ject Mrs. Sigourney has written some beautiful lines in 
a poem called " Our Country." 

81 There is thy strength, 
In thy yonng children, and in those who lead 
Their souls to righteousness. The mother's prayer 
With her sweet lisper ere it sinks to rest — 
The faithful teacher 'mid a plastic group — 
The classic halls, the hamlet's slender spire, 
From whence, as from the solemn gothic pile 
That crowns the city's pomp, ascend eth sweet 
Jehovah's praise ; these are thy strength, my land ! 
These are thy hope." 

The rise and progress of the United States appears to 
me the greatest and most important political fact of this 
century, the beginning of a new era in governmental 
arrangements, the signal for despotic potentates to mark 
the advancing current in the stream of time. They show 
the wonderful energy of free institutions, the effects of 
popular instruction, and the happy results of an active 
Christianity. Should the Confederation be dissolved, let 
lis hope that it may be amicably, and not by violence, 
on account of its overgrown dimensions, rather than of 
its internal debility. Were I Nicholas of Eussia, or an 
official interested in upholding arbitrary rule, I should 
look with jealousy and distrust on the consolidation of 
democracy in America, but as a true Briton, a lover of 
liberty, opposed to tyranny and everything which inter- 
feres with the just rights of man, though myself attached 



NATIONAL FEELING. 71 

to those institutions under which England has become 
great, I can overlook minor differences, and sympathize 
with the American poet when he writes, — 

1 ' The years, that o'er each sister land 
Shall lift the country 'of my birth 
And nurse her strength, till she shall stand 
The pride and pattern of the earth ; 

Till younger commonwealths for aid, 
Shall cling about her ample robe, 
And from her frown shall shrink afraid 
The crowned oppressors of the globe." 



CHAPTEE VI. 

Incorrect and caricatured accounts given by English writers on America 
— Feelings of its people towards Great Britain — Sentiments of the 
Americans with reference to the Russian war. 

Reference has already been made to the incorrect 
and caricatured accounts of the United States, its insti- 
tutions, and people, given to us by a class of writers, 
now happily not so popular as they were some years 
ago, when it was more the fashion to ridicule and sneer 
at our friends on the other side of the Atlantic. Tra- 
vellers of a far higher order have of late done much to 
remove the impression produced in England by these 
flippant publications, which, written more to command 
a sale, by exciting a laugh, than to circulate just ideas 
regarding the Western Continent, reflect no credit 
either on their authors or on the many readers Avho so 
readily applauded them. To Lord Carlisle, Sir Charles 
Lyell, Colonel Cunynhame, Lady Emmeline Stuart 
"YVortley, and, above all, Mr. Mackay, we are indebted 
for much more accurate descriptions of a nation which, 
with many faults, has also many virtues, and which it 
would be the height of folly, on our part, either to 
vituperate or despise. But, though the one-sided and 
oftentimes absurd stories of former book-makers are 
gradually being consigned to a well-merited oblivion, 



72 AMEEICA AND THE AMEEICAKS. 

they have caused no little bitterness of feeling between 
the two countries, which, of all others, ought to draw 
closer and closer the bonds of amity ; they have pro- 
voked Americans to write accounts of Great Britain in 
a similar spirit ; they have done sad damage to the 
cause of rational liberty, and made English credulity a 
byeword even among the rough settlers of the far west. 
Nor can our press be absolved from the charge of mis- 
representing and calumniating transatlantic affairs. Sir 
Charles Lyell notices this as a prolific source of estrange- 
ment, and every liberal man who has made the tour of 
'the Union, can bear witness to the correctness of his 
observation. It is gratifying to notice a change in this 
respect also ; but I cannot but think it undignified and 
unwise in the Times, a journal of such standing and in- 
fluence, to persevere in its hostility to everything 
American. To show to what extent these views are 
shared in by other travellers, whose opinions must go 
far to overcome the prejudices of Europeans, I shall 
request attention to the following extracts. 

"The feelings of the American people," says Mr. 
Alexander Mackay,* " have been wantonly and unneces- 
sarily wounded by successive travellers who have 
undertaken to depict them, nationally and individually, 
and who, to pander to a prevailing taste in this country, 
have generally viewed them on the ludicrous side." 
" A large proportion of English travellers in America 
have a predetermination to turn everything into ridicule, 
and enter the country demeaning themselves during 
their peregrinations through it, with an ill-disguised air 
of self-importance unpalatable to t a people who have 
become jealous from unmerited bad treatment." " Every 
account of America," remarks Mrs. Houston, in her 
volumes entitled ' Hesperos, or Travels in the "West,'t 
" is received through the medium of a mental vision, 
distorted by prejudice and fancied contempt." The 
passage which I next quote occurs in Mr. John McLean's 

* "Western World," vol. iii., pp. 319, 322. 
t Vol. i., p. 233. 



ENGLISH WEITEBS ON AMERICA. 73 

" Notes of a Twenty-five Tears' Service in the Hudson's 
Bay Territory : # " The mercenary pens of prejudiced 
narrow-minded individuals contribute daily to add fuel 
to the flame. Our ' Diaries' and our ' Notes/ replete 
with offensive remarks, are, from the cheapness of pub- 
lication, disseminated through the length and breadth of 
the Union, and are in everybody's hands ; and those 
foolish remarks are supposed to be the sentiments of 
the British nation, when they are, in fact, only the 
sentiments of individuals whose opinions are little valued 
at home, and ought to be less valued abroad." Several 
years ago Professor "Wilson wrote from Edinburgh to 
N". P. "Willis : " What a strange thing it is that nobody 
can write a good book on America ! The ridiculous part 
of it seems to me that men of common sense go there as 
travellers, and fill their books with scenes such as they 
may see every day within five minutes' walk of their own 
doors, and call them American." t Lastly, let us hear 
the testimony borne by Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley, 
in her volumes of " Travels in the United States :" J 
" Great injustice," she observes, "has been done to the 
Americans, and we have been accustomed too implicitly 
to believe the often unfair and unfounded reports of 
prejudiced travellers. Amongst the less educated, no 
doubt, occasionally, some of the faults so unsparingly 
attributed to them may be found ; but they appear to 
me, as far as I have had any opportunity of judging as 
yet, a thoroughly hospitable, kind-hearted and generous- 
minded people." Such evidence as I have just adduced 
becoming every year jnore conclusive and emphatic, must 
sooner or later convince the inhabitants of this country 
how completely they were deceived by the splenetic and 
untruthful writers whose effusions gained so much cre- 
dence at an earlier date in the present century. But, 
notwithstanding the strenuous efforts made by authors 
of no principle to keep alive the feeling of animosity 

* Vol. ii., p. 176. 

f Willis's " Pencillings by the Way," vol. iii., p. 214. 

J Vol. i., p. 26. 



74 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

which arose out of the revolutionary war, the Americans 
are proud of their English descent, and look upon this 
island in their secret heart with the same respect that a 
good man cherishes towards an attentive mother, or a 
successful aspirant after distinction towards the teacher 
who first counselled him to be industrious, energetic, 
and economical of time. They may now and then indulge 
in hard speeches or brood over past injustice, but the 
old attachment has survived years of warfare and estrange- 
ment ; once and again the traveller unexpectedly sees a 
manifestation of its force, and were Great Britain 
threatened in earnest with an attack by the armies of 
despotism, her own "revolted colonies," as obstinate 
old G-eorge the Third used to call them, would, I believe, 
be the first to aid us in defending our hearths and 
our homes ! During a visit which I paid to Mr. Prescott, 
the historian, at his city residence in Boston, I observed 
over the window at one end of his library two swords 
crossed. One of these was borne by Colonel Prescott, 
at the battle of Bunker Hill, and the other by Captain 
Lizeen, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Prescott, and 
commander of the British sloop of war, Palcon, which 
fired on the continental troops on that occasion ; and on 
my return home, I read with pleasure the following 
remarks on this union by an American writer : # " It is 
a significant and suggestive sight, from which a thoughtful 
mind may draw out a long web of reflection. Thes 
swords, once waving in hostile hands, but now amicabl 
lying side by side, symbolize not merely the union of 
families once opposed in deadly struggle, but, as we hope 
and trust, the mood of peace which is destined to guid 
the two great nations, which, like parted streams, trac 
back their source to the same parent fountain." Such 
I think are the sentiments entertained by the great body 
of the people in the United States, by the native-born 
Anglo-Saxons who really constitute the nation. Some 
people have formed their impressions of American cha- 
racter and opinions from Milesian-Irish mobs in the 
* "Homes of American Authors," p. 129. 



: 



: 



FEELINGS TOWARDS GREAT BRITAIN. 75 

larger cities, from the anti-English speeches of unprin- 
cipled "Washington politicians, from the proceedings of 
ignorant emigrants from Germany and Tipperary who 
have settled in the West, from the Frenchified popula- 
tion of New Orleans, and from the desperadoes of all 
countries, who travel in the steamboats on the Mississippi, 
or lounge about the bar-rooms of hotels ; but the Great 
Republic can no more be said to be fairly represented by 
men of this class, than England would be by the physical- 
force Chartist, the half-clad Celt from Connaught, or 
the Pariah of Hindostan. Our common law is the basis 
of American jurisprudence ; political liberty is enjoyed 
as well by mother as by daughter, and our transatlantic 
friends feel themselves bound to us not only by the ties 
of kindred, but because they look upon us as the guar- 
dians of freedom in the old world as they are in the new. 
It is remarkable too to observe in what kindly, I might 
almost say chivalrous language, the staunch republicans 
of America — I don't refer to political vapourers and 
demagogues, whose orations pass in this country for far 
more than they are worth — speak of our Queen. "Were 
she to visit us," writes one of them,* " she would be 
welcomed, I am sure, as never was lady before. What 
processions we should have ! Up the Bowery, down 
Broadway ; from Boxbury line to Baneuil Hall, up Court 
and Tremont to a tent on the Common : it would be 
grand ! She will probably come in her own yacht — and 
when she does, nobody certainly can say we have a 
British Tory among us." I have quoted already from 
Lord Jeffrey; and as my object is not to obtrude upon 
the public my own opinions, but to lay before it informa- 
tion on a most important subject, I offer no excuse for 
giving one more extract from the writings of that great 
man : " There is no one feeling," he rema,rks,t "having 
public concerns for its object, with which I have been 
so long and so deeply impressed, as that of the vast 
importance of our maintaining friendly and even cordial 

* " Homes of American Authors," p. 117. 
t "Life," by Lord Cockburn, vol. i., p. 247. 



76 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

relations with the free, powerful, moral, and industrious 
states of America — a condition upon which I cannot help 
thinking that not only our own freedom and prosperity, 
but that of the better part of the world will ultimately 
be found to be more and more dependent." These ob- 
servations, it appears to me, must at once recommend 
themselves to every true philanthropist. And may we 
not reasonably expect that the cultivation of this senti- 
ment by liberal men will be attended before many years 
with practical results ? Events both here and at the 
antipodes have recently been tending in one direction, 
to the accomplishment of an end fraught with unspeak- 
able blessings to humanity. It requires no superhuman 
sagacity to foresee, looming through the mists of uncer- 
tainty which now hang over nations, the fraternal 
meeting of the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon race — 
the alliance, offensive and defensive, between England 
and the United States of America. Both have overrun 
continents not with armies, but with husbandmen and 
merchants ; both have opened up empires to Christianity 
and commerce ; both have discovered El Dorados on the 
Pacific coast, and we want but to know in order to 
appreciate each other — to find out that we have not only 
a common origin and a common love of liberty, but a 
common interest and a common destiny, as joint instru- 
ments in the hands of Providence of carrying an energetic 
race and a noble language, the blessings of civilization, 
and a benign religion through difficulties and dangers 
to the uttermost ends of the earth. 

Since the preceding remarks were written, a noisy and 
unprincipled section of American politicians has con- 
trived to produce a very general impression in Europe 
that public opinion throughout the Great Eepublic 
sympathises not with the allies, but with the Eussian 
autocrat in the present sanguinary contest. It is not 
surprising that those who are ignorant of the state of 
parties, and the working of an unlimited democracy on 
the other side of the Atlantic, should be thus deceived, 
for the Irish mobs in the large cities, who cheered 



AMERICA AND THE RUSSIAN WAR. 77 

Meagher, and proclaimed John Mitchell the noblest of 
patriots, — the reckless filibusters of the south, who hate 
G-reat Britain as the avenger of injustice, and the 
asylum of the slave, — the Red Republican adventurers 
from the Continent, eager for employment against a 
nation which is the bulwark of constitutional monarchy, 
— and a few thoughtless military officers thirsting for 
promotion and fame — raise so great a clamour and force 
their own declarations into so undue prominence, that 
one can scarcely realize the fact that they no more 
represent the sentiments of the American people, than 
do the physical force Chartists those of the inhabitants 
of England. I have in a former chapter referred to the 
political corruption prevalent in the United States. Is 
it unlikely that men like the traders in legislation, 
who swarm in the lobbies of the Capitol, an 4 may be found 
as well in the several State senates and at the municipal 
boards, should accept largesses from the Czar, should in 
fact hire their services for a consideration to the great 
enemy of European civilization and rational liberty r 
Both " the voice and echo of rumour" lay this crime to 
their charge, and if such strange reports prove in any 
respect true, it will become the urgent and sacred duty 
of the American people to avenge the injured dignity of 
their country by putting an end to practices and 
intrigues which are beginning to attract towards Wash- 
ington the indignant eyes of the civilized world. 

"Why should the true-hearted and generous citizens of 
the United States, the native-born Anglo-Saxons, who 
really constitute the nation, suffer their opinions to be 
misrepresented, their institutions brought into disrepute, 
and their influence at foreign courts weakened by a set 
of men of so little consideration at home, and so 
thoroughly selfish in all their doings ? These plotters 
and trafficking statesmen must be reduced to their own 
proper insignificance before the Americans will meet 
with much sympathy when they complain of misconcep? 
tion and ignorance on this side of the ocean. If they 
permit those of their newspapers, which every child 



78 AMERICA AOT> THE AMERICANS. 

throughout the IJuion knows to be full of unblushing 
falsehoods, to enjoy almost a monopoly of circulation in 
Europe, and suffer the statements of New Tort mobs 
and South-western filibusters to cross the Atlantic 
uncontradicted from week to week, they must expect 
both misconstruction and unmerited detraction. If we 
are credulous, they are supine; if we in our simplicity 
believe the accounts given by demagogues and hired 
advocates, they should take care to send us more reliable 
information. I cannot, however, regard but as most 
blameworthy, any amongst ourselves who without due 
investigation, and on the faith of a few mere news- 
paper extracts, have attempted to excite angry feelings 
in Great Britain against the Americans for their alleged 
sympathy with Russia in the present war. True, the 
good sense of the community frowns upon such endea- 
vours, but a certain number of inconsiderate persons are 
always ready to adopt ideas of this kind on most insuf- 
ficient grounds, and I envy not the responsibility of 
those who lead their neighbours on the ice before 
reflecting well on its strength and safety. In the pre- 
sent instance, men who strive to produce alienation of 
feeling between the two great branches of the Anglo- 
Saxon family, by adopting as true the contemptible 
asseverations of unprincipled journals, and as unprin- 
cipled politicians, retard the spread of freedom both in 
the old world and the new, and play into the hands of 
those very despots on whom the vials of their wrath are 
so constantly poured. 

That our diplomatic engagements with Austria and 
the alleged pledge of Prance to keep down the Italian 
patriots, the reluctance of the allies to reconstruct 
Poland as an independent nation, and their hostility to 
the American desire for territorial aggrandisement ; 
our hesitancy to admit the principle that free ships 
make free goods, and a lingering soreness arising out of 
the struggle for independence, have all tended to lessen 
the interest of our transatlantic friends in the contest 



AMERICA AND THE RUSSIAN WAR. 79 

now waging, I think by no means improbable, but 
at the same time I most cordially concur in the declara- 
tion of the ' New York Journal of Commerce,' "that 
four-fifths of the inhabitants of the United States share 
the hatred of the western nations of Europe against 
Russian despotism; that every arrival from Europe which 
brings news of defeat to the arms of the Czar is regarded 
by them as good news, and every cloud over the pros- 
pects of the Allies as deplorable intelligence, which they 
hope may be remedied or dispelled." # 

The writer of the admirable article, of which the pre- 
ceding sentence forms the conclusion, complains griev- 
ously of the " profound want of knowledge" of America 
and Americans displayed by persons in England, " whose 
duty it is to be well informed on such subjects," and 
very truly adds that the hostile, mischievous, and untrue 
assertions ever' and anon being made about his country 
by British journalists, tend to produce the very feelings 
which they so much deprecate, and of which the Great 
Republic, as a nation, is unjustly accused. Whilst 
adducing the testimony of the respectable portion of 
the press in the United States, I cannot refrain from 
quoting one paragraph from an article on Christmas 
Day, in the 6 Boston Daily Atlas' of 25th December, 1854, 
an article eloquently written, and illustrating, far better 
than any words of mine, the real sentiments of the 
American people at this important crisis in the affairs 
of Europe. 

" JSTor let us forget, in the midst of our small sorrows 
and petty cares, that land in which for so many years 
Christmas has been so wisely and so merrily kept. Into 
many a castle and cottage of old England this sacred 
day will bring no accustomed old time gladness, for the 
manly forms of son, of father, or of brother, which 
moved to delightful, measures under the misletoe only a 
twelvemonth ago, are sleeping the sleep that knows no 
waking beneath the snows of the Crimea and in the 
* "New York Journal of Commerce," December 30, 1854. 



80 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

blasted trenches of Sebastopol. The gallant fellows are 
at rest now, peasant and peer slumbering in one com- 
mon grave : and he who left behind him only a poor cot, 
a poor widow, and six poor little children, is wept for 
as bitterly as the boy-officer from whose veins, at Bala- 
klava and Inkermann, flowed the blood of the Howards, 
the Percys, and the Plantagenets. Yet whether the 
dead soldier is wept for in the lowly hovel or the lofty 
ancestral castle, whether the bosom that mourns him 
heaves beneath serge or satin, be sure that the memory 
of his stern unflinching bravery brings the best consola- 
tion to every true British matron." 

Before leaving this subject, there is one consideration 
which we, and much more our friends in America, should 
keep in mind, viz., that according to many whose testi- 
mony is both unprejudiced and founded on personal 
observation, the remarkable success of the American 
Protestant missionaries in the East has contributed 
more than any other cause to hasten the accomplishment 
of Russian designs on Turkey. The Emperor trembles 
for the supremacy of the Greek Church on the shores of 
the Levant and the Euxine ; for years his agents have 
been plotting to put a stop to the work of conversion now 
going on — often have they tried to arm against the 
innovators the fanatical portion of both Mussulmans 
and Christians, and as often have they been signally 
foiled by British officials, especially by that noble-minded 
advocate of the oppressed, Lord Stratford de Eedcliffe. 
It is now reported that the Muscovite minister at 
Teheran, and the Muscovite consul at Tabriz, have pro- 
cured from the Persian government decrees which will 
virtually crush the American mission to the Nestorians 
at Oroomiah. I shall not be sorry if this prove true, for 
it may open the eyes of many on the other side of the 
ocean who misunderstand the nature of this war, and 
show more manifestly that it is the duty of every con- 
stitutional nation to withstand, if necessary by force of 
arms, the projects of a despot who seeks to ride rough- 
shod over the liberties of Eastern Europe and Western 



AMERICAN MISSIONARIES IN THE EAST. 81 

Asia. It would be singular, indeed, if the United States 
stood aloof from or looked coldly on a struggle originated 
by her own zealous and self-sacrificing citizens, who, 
with so much ability and perseverance, have prepared 
the way for the restoration of freedom and evangelical 
Christianity in regions which formed the cradle of the 
human race. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

American newspapers — Their number, cheapness, and inferiority in 
point of literary talent — Booksellers' shops — Thirst for reading, and 
knowledge — Literature of the Union — Its theologians and popular 
writers ; Washington Irving, Cooper, Prescott, Hawthorne, Emerson, 
Channing, Bancroft, Longfellow, and Audubon — Literary ladies of 
America ; Mrs. Sigourney, Miss Sedgwick, Grace Greenwood, Fanny 
Fern, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

I have submitted the thoughts which occurred to me 
at different times in regard to the political condition 
and prospects of the transatlantic republic ; a very few 
observations on its newspapers and literature may be 
fitly embodied in the present chapter. 

Some of my readers may recollect the very eloquent 
passage in Sir Walter Scott's "Life of Napoleon,"* where 
the unfortunate consequences of that conqueror prevent- 
ing public opinion manifesting itself through the press 
are so forcibly pointed out. " The downfall of this 
species of freedom," remarks our historian, t " as it is the 
first symptom of the decay of national liberty, has been 
in all ages followed by its total destruction." Measur- 
ing America by this standard, it must be free indeed, 
for its citizens support no fewer than 2800 newspapers, 
having a circulation of about five millions, and an 
annual issue of more than four hundred millions of 
copies. On the continent of Europe a few journals 
struggle against a rigid political censorship ; in a country 

* Chap. Ixvii. f " Life of Napoleon," chap. Ixxxiii. 

G 



S2 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

not yet one hundred years old, two thousand weekly, 
and three hundred and fifty daily periodicals, inform 
every farmer and artisan between the Atlantic and the 
Kocky Mountains, what is going on both at home and 
abroad. Almost every town of considerable size has 
several daily papers ; each village has one, if not two, 
according to the strength of the political parties in its 
vicinity ; and in places that have started into existence 
within a few months, secluded amid the forests of the 
Far West, you find very tolerable weekly sheets. In 
Great Britain, the public journals circulate chiefly in 
reading rooms, hotels, railroad stations, and the houses 
of the wealthier inhabitants of towns ; in America every 
family among the rural, as well as the urban population, 
takes in a local, if not a metropolitan newspaper. This 
national habit causes a demand quite unexampled in 
Europe, and enables men of every class to exercise their 
minds on political questions, and to inform themselves on 
the topics of the day. It is no uncommon thing to 
meet farmers of small means and limited education who 
can talk as learnedly about Italian or Spanish politics as 
attaches to legations. 

But the very number, and consequent cheapness of 
newspapers in the United States, prevent in general 
great talent from being employed upon them. No pro- 
prietor can afford to pay high salaries, either to editor 
or contributors, and consequently when mere news are 
scarce, stupid love stories and silly anecdotes may often 
be found occupying the place of original matter of an 
instructing nature. Then the advertisements usually 
fill up three-fourths of the space. As they have never 
paid duty, the people have got into the practice of 
making every saleable article thus publicly known. 
When any one gets a few hams or a box of dry goods, 
half a dozen cheeses, or a score of barrels of flour, he 
immediately advertises them. A great proportion of 
American journals might be termed more appropriately 
" news sheets,' ' as they contain scarcely anything of an 
editorial character, and are glanced at, not read. They 



XEWSPAPEKS. 83 

/ 

will get out any quantity of " extras," and even go to 
considerable expense to procure early intelligence by 
telegraph or otherwise, but literary talent they cannot 
remunerate, for in a coimtry where books are so cheap, 
few think of devoting more than ten minutes to a daily 
newspaper. Their reports of speeches and proceedings, 
whether at public meetings or in legislative assemblies, 
will not for a moment compare with those given in 
England. It is usual on the morning after a debate, to 
give a mere outline of it, and several days afterwards to 
print some particular oration in extenso, often revised 
and corrected by the person who delivered it. The 
provincial journals seldom transfer to their columns any 
epitome of the discussions in Congress ; but substitute 
letters from their correspondents at Washington, with a 
mere sketch of what goes on, and party comments upon 
it. Yet a few of them contain a fair proportion of 
useful matter, accounts of new discoveries, notices of 
books, dissertations on agricultural improvements, legis- 
lative suggestions, and well-chosen extracts from eminent 
authors. In New York and some of the larger cities, 
there are now daily papers, which show much laudable 
enterprise, which contain original matter from every 
quarter of the globe ; and which, though immeasurably 
inferior to the London press, approximate more than 
their contemporaries in the provinces, to the rank and 
influence of such periodicals in England. 

But whilst in a literary point of view, American 
newspapers contrast very unfavourably with ours, they 
by no means answer to the descriptions which have been 
given of them by some British writers, as "immoral" 
in their tendency, and calculated to corrupt the public 
taste. It surprises me that a man like Mr. Dickens, 
who had opportunities of judging, should have given 
such an unjust and ill-tempered account of them, as has 
through the medium of his "jSTotes" been circulated over 
the length and breadth of this land. Sir Charles Lyell 
tells me a very different story.* " I have purchased 

* " A Second Yisit to the United States," vol. ii., p. 41. 

G2 



84 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

newspapers at random," says lie, " wherever we went in 
the northern, middle, southern, and western states, and 
came to the conclusion that the press of the United 
States is quite as respectable as our own." I hare 
travelled over more ground in the Union than either of 
them, and read, perhaps, as many papers in all parts of 
it. I agree with Sir Charles, whose work will be found 
well worth reading, and not a mere burlesque. He is a 
far more reliable authority than the author of " Martin 
Chuzzlewit." As to the numerous silly anecdotes which 
we every now and then see copied into our periodicals 
as from American papers, most of them are written in 
London. In the western journals I have met with ex- 
travagant stories of this kind, but not more frequently 
than in papers published by cautious, matter of fact 
Scotchmen. 

It has been frequently remarked by observant travel- 
lers, that the number and character of the booksellers' 
shops in a country afford a better indication of the state 
of education than the most minute attention paid to its 
seminaries of learning. If we apply this test to the 
United States, we must form a very high notion of the 
intelligence of the people, for the smallest towns in 
rural districts have all stores for the sale of books and 
music, as large and as well supplied as many in our 
chief cities. I was surprised to find mere villages so 
favourably circumstanced in this respect. It only illus- 
trates still further the remarkable demand for informa- 
tion, and its general diffusion amongst all classes 
throughout the Eepublic. 

The Americans have England to thank for a very large 
proportion of the supply which goes to quench this 
honourable thirst for knowledge. JSTo sooner does a 
history, or novel, or book of travels, by an eminent 
writer appear in London, than agents in this country 
forward copies across the Atlantic, there to be reprinted 
and circulated in thousands, from Maine to the mouths 
of the Mississippi. The stranger may find in lonely 
farm-houses amongst the forests of Ohio, on the wide 



LITERATURE. 85 

prairies of Illinois, in negro-cabins by the way-side in 
Kentucky, even in log-huts far up the Missouri, little 
libraries, containing the best works of Scott and Byron, 
Wordsworth and Southey, Chalmers and Hall, Marryatt 
and Bulwer Lytton. Few men born under the star- 
spangled banner are ignorant of British literature, and 
some, whose uncouth aspect tells of labours at the out- 
skirts of civilization, have an acquaintance with letters 
which might put to the blush many European gentlemen. 
This energetic and intelligent people, however, during the 
short century of their national existence, have been so 
occupied in developing the agricultural, commercial, and 
manufacturing resources of their country ; their strides, 
in a material point of view, have been so gigantic, that 
they have left themselves little time for intellectual 
efforts, further than those required to influence political 
elections. America has hitherto given birth to few 
notable authors, excepting her theologians, who, for no 
inconsiderable period, have occupied a prominent place 
in the literary arena. Moses Stuart, Albert Barnes, 
EdwardBobinson, and Joseph Addison Alexander, among 
the living, Jonathan Edwards and Edward Payson among 
the dead, are names familiar as household words to all 
acquainted with this department of study. Admitting 
that her divines stand in the foremost ranks of Chris- 
tianity's champions, the enemies of the Republic fre- 
quently reproach her with having produced neither a 
historian nor a novelist, nor a poet of world-wide repu- 
tation. But times, in this respect, are changing, too, 
and let us Britons see to it, lest the young empire, 
whose railroads and telegraphs, whose steam-ships and 
factories, have risen from the primeval forests like the 
creations of a magician's wand, outstrip us also in the 
intellectual race, and, with a vigour now scarce in 
ancient lands, transfer to paper the workings of that 
mental power which has always distinguished the trans- 
atlantic portion of the Anglo-Saxon family. Already 
the printing-presses of London have begun to copy 
those of New York ; the pirates are now on this side of 



86 AMERICA AIS'I) THE AMERICANS. 

the ocean as well as on the other ; every bookstall at 
English railway stations groans under the products of 
American mind; Longfellow has written odes which 
lead us to hope that America may yet produce a Camp- 
bell : "Washington Irving' s tales delight thousands who 
are not critics enough to observe the happy manner in 
which he seeks to interest the people of the New "World 
in the history and associations of the Old, to soften 
national animosity, and to mould the style of his fellow- 
countrymen after the best masters of England's Au- 
gustan age ; Eenimore Cooper has found a place in all 
our libraries, and, in the opinions of some well qualified 
to judge, even the stately periods of Gribbon, and the 
classic eloquence of Macaulay, can scarcely compare with 
that charming style in which the deeds of Cortes and 
Pizarro have been enshrined by "William Henry Pres- 
cott. Many of our countrymen, too, must have read 
" The Blithedale Eomance," "The Scarlet Letter," or 
"The House with the Seven Grables." I recommend 
those who have not, to make an early acquaintance 
with the strange originality, the powerful modes of 
expression, the pure English, and the highly-wrought 
images of Nathaniel Hawthorne, a novelist rapidly rising 
to a high position in the temple of fame. The flow of 
his diction reminds me of Pope's stately measures ; his 
style has Carlyle's depth and quaintness without his 
affectation of singularity. He surrounds every-day life 
with a magic halo, and sees Eastern visions on New 
England soil. I would speak' cautiously of Emerson, 
because I am quite unequal to the task of pointing out 
either the merits or demerits of a writer whose great 
abilities and greater errors have puzzled far wiser heads 
than mine ; who so often mixes crude analogies, wild 
paradox, and unintelligible insinuations, with concep- 
tions which startle you by their intellectual power. 

Many years ago the essays of "William Ellery Chan- 
ning were read with admiration by Englishmen; as 
specimens of elegant composition they stand very high, 
ajd entitle their author to be called the Addison of 



AMERICAN AUTHORS. 87 

America. If Channing be the Addison, Bancroft is the 
Hume. His volumes bear evidence of diligent research, 
ease in composition, and historical accuracy. Let us not 
forget John James Audubon, the bold hunter and 
learned ornithologist, whose hut has so often been 
erected on the slopes of the Bocky Mountains, and on the 
wide savannahs by the banks of the Missouri and the 
Yellowstone. Should we pass him by, unmindful of the 
great obligation under which natural history lies to him, 
our descendants must ever cherish his name, for there 
is not a bird whose habits and plumage his works do 
not immortalize, from the tiny speck which hums in the 
gardens of Florida, to the eagle which makes the cliffs 
of the Sierra re-echo its scream. 

I might enlarge the foregoing list and speak of Bryant 
and Everett, of Dana, Cheever and Peter Parley ; but, 
without saying more about America's literary men, I 
shall add a few words about her literary ladies. And 
well may we remember their claims, for if the gentlemen 
of the United States, the graduates of Yale and 
Harvard, do not look to their laurels, Europe will begin 
to sympathize with Lucy Stone, and to imagine that the 
greater proportion of talent in their country must be 
awarded to women. How sweetly pathetic are Mrs. 
Sigourney's poems ; how touching and lifelike the stories 
which Miss Sedgwick has written in her New England 
home ! Mrs. Earnham has enlisted our sympathies 
with the settlers on the prairies ; Grace Greenwood has 
afforded many a family circle pleasant hours; and who, 
amongst the thousand readers on the other side of the 
Atlantic, has not heard of Fanny Eern, whose sketches 
of character and moral maxims, applicable to the daily 
routine of life, and presented in a form so attractive as 
to disarm opposition, with all their brilliant wit and 
tender remonstrance, their simplicity, truthfulness, and 
force of expression, their playful humour and merry 
irony, may be found on every bookseller's counter, and 
on most parlour tables throughout the Union. Writing, 
not from Boston or the Empire City, but from a little 



88 AMEKICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

country-town in the western part of the State of New 
York, anonymously, and a mere series of fragments, her 
exquisite pathos has gained for her the tribute of 
national applause. It is long since I have felt so deeply 
as I did on turning over these " Fern Leaves, gathered 
at random in shady spots, where sunbeams seldom play."- 
Need I say one w^ord about Mrs. Harriet Beecher 
Stowe ? This is no place to discuss the moral of the 
tale ; but who amongst us can rival the irresistible 
humour, the tenderness, the he art- stirring appeals, the 
idiomatic vigour, the freshness of thought, and power of 
execution which characterise every page of " Uncle 
Tom's Cabin?" No wonder that such a book has reached 
a circulation, exceeding, I believe, that either of 
"Robinson Crusoe," or the "Pilgrim's Progress;" un- 
equalled, in fact, in the history of literature. How 
remarkable that, ere the work had been a twelvemonth 
out of the press, more readers had shed a tear over the 
grave of the negro in the wilds of Arkansas, than had 
sympathised with the heir of Ellangowan, or lamented 
the hapless fate of Romeo and Juliet ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Social state of America — Its homes— Boarding-house system- — High life 
in New York — American viands and mode of cooking them — Fast 
eating — Stoves and anthracite coal — The ladies of the great Republic 
— Their social position, habits, and education — Love of dress and 
inattention to health — Their beauty and intelligence— New Year's 
Day on the other side of the Atlantic — National sports and amuse- 
ments — Benevolent institutions — Administration of justice. 

In order to become accurately acquainted with the 
social condition of a country so peculiarly situated as 
the United States of America, the traveller must visit 
its "Homes," must breathe their sacred atmosphere, 
must carefully observe their influence, and must consider 
well their relation to the industrial, political, and moral 
resources of the commonwealth. The secret of that 
material progress which has fixed on the young Republic 



AMEBIC AK HOMES. 89 

tlie wondering eyes of Christendom, is not to be dis- 
covered by looking into shop windows, whirling along 
in railroad cars, or lounging in the gorgeous apartments 
of modern hotels. There are shops, and railways, and 
gigantic inns in bureaucratic Austria, in down- trodden 
Italy, in corrupt and fallen Spain; but in these lands 
you search vainly for the domestic hearth, the family 
enjoyment, the thousand delightful associations connected 
with what Professor Wilson has so aptly styled, "the 
Sabbath sanctity of home." Not that individual 
instances may not even there be found of circles that 
appreciate the 

" Only bliss 
Of Paradise, that has survived the fall ;" 

but that abroad, the majority of the people waste in fri- 
volous amusements those precious hours which the Anglo- 
Saxon parent, on both sides of the Atlantic, devotes to 
the education of his children and the cultivation of his 
mind. The Lusthaus of the American is his snug little 
parlour ; with his cheap books and entertaining maga- 
zines, he finds his time pass away more pleasantly than 
the German who cannot exist without , his tea-gardens, 
or the Frenchman whose thoughts centre in the play. 
No doubt there are diversities between various portions 
of the Union in regard to social manners ; Boston does 
not differ more from Hamburg than it does from New 
Orleans ; the descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers have 
customs varying widely from those of the mixed races on 
the Grulf of Mexico, or even from the planters of the Old 
Dominion ; but take the country as a whole, leaving ex- 
ceptional cases out of view, and I feel persuaded you 
will agree with me in thinking that the well-spring of 
the Bepublic's rising greatness, the source of all her 
power, lies, not in political institutions, not in territorial 
arrangements, not in the peculiarities of race, or the 
advantages of situation, but in the attachment of her 
people to the family circle, in their anxiety 

" To taste and to communicate the joys, 
The thousand fond endearing charities 



00 AMERICA AtfD THE AMERICANS. 

Of tenderness domestic ; nature's best 

And loveliest gift, with which she well atones 

The niggard boon of fortune."* 

Whether we enter the manor-houses of the South, 
where the ease and elegance of society testify to a class 
removed by birth and position from the toils of labour, or 
the stately mansions of merchants in the maritime cities, 
replete with every luxury which money can provide, or 
the neat farmers' dwellings in New England, redolent 
with all that makes a fireside happy and a nation great, 
or the rude huts buried in western forests, the abodes 
of men who conceal beneath a rough exterior, minds 
guided by stern principle, and hearts of sterling worth ; 
amidst all the differences incidental to position, we shall 
be at no loss to discover that the guardian angel of 
America is the genius of home. " ¥e read," says a 
recent transatlantic writer,t " that ' God setteth the 
solitary in families.' " The significance of this beautiful 
expression dwells in its last word. The solitary are not 
set in hotels, or boarding-houses, nor yet in communities 
or phalansteries, but in families. The burden of solitude 
is to be lightened by household affections, and not by 
mere aggregation. True society — that which the heart 
craves, and the character needs — is only to be found at 
home, and what are called the cares of housekeeping, 
from which so many selfishly and indolently shrink, 
when lightened by mutual forbearance and unpretending 
self-sacrifice, become occasions of endearment and in- 
struments of moral and spiritual growth." The fore- 
going extract, while it expresses the profound conviction 
of the American people, at the same time implies a 
censure on the practice which so extensively prevails, 
especially in the larger cities, of families, chiefly young 
married couples, living in public hotels or crowded 
boarding-houses, instead of taking houses of their own. 
The reasons alleged for this custom, are the difiiculty of 
procuring good servants in a country where the 

* Hannah More's " Sacred Dramas"— David and Goliath. 
" Homes of American Authors" — article, Prescott, p. 124. 



BOARDING-HOUSES. 91 

labouring classes can employ their time much more 
profitably, the vexation and annoyance almost invariably 
given by the Irish girls who act in this capacity, the 
enormous rent demanded for apartments and the high 
price of provisions. The indisposition of young ladies 
to undertake the responsibilities and troubles of attending 
to domestic arrangements, as long as they can live where 
they have plenty of servants and a sumptuous table, and 
as long as their husbands are good-natured enough to 
indulge their whim, may be added as a fifth and ex- 
ceedingly potential cause of this uncomfortable, un- 
natural, and undesirable mode of living. I one day 
visited no fewer than twenty-five of these boarding- 
houses in New York, in search of rooms suitable for 
the accommodation of my family during my absence in 
Cuba and the Southern States. Many of the hand- 
somest mansions in the upper part of the city, I found 
to be establishments of this nature, and I was not a 
little amused by the interviews I had with pompous 
dames who received me in elegantly furnished drawing- 
rooms, before showing me the dear and shabby apart- 
ments upstairs. This system does not obtain to such 
an extent in Philadelphia, where, it appears to me, there 
is far more real, comfort than in the commercial capital. 
People there do not live in their basements, and keep 
their good rooms for show. The Quaker city can boast 
of a more refined, though not of a more ostentatious, 
aristocracy than its neighbour, New York. The fashion- 
ables of the latter do not understand how to make 
social intercourse really enjoyable. They know little or 
nothing of select dinner parties and small evening com- 
panies, such as we entertain in Great Britain, but either 
expect their friends to drop in after tea of their own 
accord, or invite them to gatherings of two to five hun- 
dred people, crowded together in hot rooms, for the pur- 
pose of dancing the polka. These parties are given only 
about once a year, and cost in many cases extravagant 
sums of money. I heard of one to which seven hundred 
and fifty persons were asked, at an outlay of fourteen 



92 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

thousand dollars. The ladies who consider themselves 
leaders of the fashion, boast of the number attending 
their balls, and, in order to swell that number, actually 
applied to a certain Mr. B — — , sexton of a fashionable 
Episcopalian Church, not one hundred miles from Union 
Square, who keeps a list of " desirable and likely" young 
men, delivers invitations, and himself acts as master of 
ceremonies. "East" gentlemen give him a fee of 
twenty to twenty-five dollars for the privilege of having 
their names entered on his list, and thus being intro- 
duced to the Jiaut ton of the Fifth Avenue. This I 
believe to be an institution quite peculiar to the other 
side of the Atlantic. To us, unsophisticated lovers of 
decorum in the old country, it savours somewhat of 
vanity and vulgar pomp. 
I The Americans, almost to a man, act on the maxim, 

1 ' Early to bed, and early to rise, 
Is the way to be healthy, wealthy, and wise." 

This habit goes far towards prolonging life and 
neutralizing the effects of a dietary system which is 
most prejudicial to health. On the latter subject, Miss 
Bremer remarks^ with great justice, " I am becoming 
more and more convinced that the diet here is unwhole- 
some, and is not suited to the climate, which is hot and 
stimulating, They eat hot bread for breakfast, as well 
as many fat and heating dishes, besides roast pork, 
sausages, omelets, and such like. In the evenings, espe- 
cially at all suppers, they eat oysters stewed, or a salad 
and peach preserve, a peach ice, &c." The rapidity 
with which Americans devour their meals has become 
proverbial.^ I well recollect my astonishment at the 
first dinner which .1 witnessed on board a Western 
steamboat. No sooner had the captain taken his place 
than my neighbours at table seized every dish within 
their reach, mixed roast veal, sausages, butter, puddings, 
tarts, sweet potatoes, bread, and cabbages on the same 
plate, and swallowed them heterogeneously, as fast as 

* "Homes of the New World," vol. i., p. 152. 



FAST EATING. 93 

their hands could raise the viands to their gaping 
mouths. Six or seven minutes after the bell rung, a 
dozen fellows started up in breathless haste to pick their 
teeth and prepare their mouths for tobacco. But in this 
respect the Down Easters beat the Western men hollow. 
I shall never forget the inconceivable rapidity with which 
I saw meals discussed in the State of Maine. I found, 
however, a great change for the better in this respect 
during my last visit, although at the Virginia Hotel in 
St. Louis (Missouri), out of 250 who sat down to 
dinner, only 20 remained longer than ten minutes. It 
is needless to say how injurious this practice is to the 
health of the population. The mode of heating houses 
by means of stoves which burn anthracite coals, also 
affects most prej adicially the sanitary state of the 
families w r ho use them. Hawthorne, in his " Mosses 
from an old Manse," refers to this when he writes, 
" Our successors will have grown up amid furnace heat, 
in houses which might be fancied to have their founda- 
tion over the infernal pit, whence sulphurous streams 
and unbreathable exhalations ascend through the aper- 
tures of the floor." The wooden logs in the country 
give out a cheerful blaze, but in the towns the English 
lire-place has but a poor substitute in the " sullen, 
stove." 

Fenimore Cooper, in one of his novels,* remarks : — 
" The good treatment of their women is the surest 
evidence that a people can give of their civilization;" 
and he adds, " and there is no nation which has more to 
boast of in this respect than the Americans." I had 
marked several passages from recent European writers 
for quotation, to verify this statement, and to prove, in 
the words of Mrs. Houston, f that "a young and pretty 
girl may travel alone with perfect safety from Maine to 
Missouri, and will meet with nothing but respect and 
attention the whole way ;" but the fact is so patent and 
indisputable, that it would be a waste of time to bring 

* " The Spy," chap. xxx. 

f "Hesperos," vol. ii., p. 185. 



94 AMERICA. AND THE AMERICANS. 

forward elaborate testimony. The attention paid to the 
feebler sex in the United States in drawing-rooms, 
steamboats, railroad-cars, and public assemblies, is well- 
known to every one who has studied the subject ; 
indeed, it is often carried too far, degenerating into a 
sort of homage, w r hich the ladies, were they to consult 
their own dignity and self-respect, should not encourage. 
Fanny Fern, impressed with this spirit of exaction on 
the part of her countrywomen, thus rates them in her 
own happy style of irony : — " "When you enter a crowded 
lecture-room, and a gentleman rises politely, — as 
American gentlemen always do, — and offers to give up 
his seat, which he came an hour ago to secure for him- 
self, take it as a matter of course, and don't trouble 
yourself to thank him, even with a nod of your head. 
As to feeling uneasy about accepting it, that is ridicu- 
lous ! because, if he don't fancy standing during the 
service, he is at liberty to go home ; it is a free 
country ! When you enter the cars, and all eligible 
places are occupied, select one to your mind, then walk 
up to the gentleman who is gazing at the fine scenery 
through the open window, and ask him for it with a 
queenly air, as if he would lose caste instanter did he 
hesitate to comply. Should any persons seat themselves 
near you not exactly of ' your stamp,' gather up the 
folds of your dress cautiously, as if you were afraid of 
contagion, and apply a 'vinaigrette' to your patrician 
nose!" I have spent many agreeable hours with 
American ladies, and retain pleasant recollections of 
their liveliness and intelligence, but must candidly say 
that in the opinion not only of all well-bred foreigners, 
but of many citizens also, the gentlemen treat them far 
too much like spoiled children ; and if in this respect 
they boast of their civilization, it is the civilization of 
Don Quixote rather than of Christianity and common- 
sense. " When I write my threatened book upon female 
education," observes Lord Jeffrey* to an American 

* "Life," by Lord Cockbuni, vol. ii., p. 149. 



AMERICAN LADIES. 95 

friend, " I must rank that of your free country among 
the most injudicious." However they may differ in 
other particulars, European travellers have expressed 
themselves with wonderful unanimity on this subject. 
Indeed, the evil is so self-evident, that the most pre- 
judiced cannot fail to notice it. Young ladies who uT 
all other civilized countries would be considered mere 
boarding-school misses, in whom modesty is regarded as 
the most essential acquirement, in the United States, 
casting off all restraint, not only act an independent 
part and display an ease of manner savouring painfully 
of pertness and pretension, but actually assume the lead 
in society. Prematurely embarked on the sea of life, 
they acquire at an early age a self-confidence and a 
freedom of demeanour by no means feminine or calcu- 
lated to please an impartial spectator. Forward without 
genius, and talkative without information, they often 
render conversation frivolous, and overbear wiser heads 
by their loud assumption of unnatural dignity. It is 
repugnant to proper feeling to see married women, 
though distinguished for beauty and accomplishments, 
comparatively neglected in company, while girls of six- 
teen or seventeen, who have nothing to recommend 
them but thoughtlessness and volubility, are surrounded 
with listeners. Nor is this abuse confined to the 
drawing-room and the evening party ; it enters into 
the daily routine of domestic duties. Instead of assisting 

her mother, the lovely Miss M laughs at and snubs 

her, asks whom she pleases to visit at the house, and 
does nothing all daylong but flirt, lounge, and read novels. 
It appears to me that the system of education at many 
of the ladies' academies encourages this prevalent folly; 
the proficiency of young misses in algebra, moral 
philosophy and physics, being published far and wide, 
and exhibited before admiring audiences, whilst the 
humbler but far more important engagements of 
domestic life seem to be entirely forgotten by both 
pupils and teachers. Above the portal of every such 
seminary, on the mind of every American matron, 



96 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

should be written in striking characters the words of 

Milton : 

1 ■ For nothing lovelier can be found 
In woman than to study household good." 

If the damsels of the Great Kepublic would bestow 
more time in looking after the arrangements of the 
kitchen, the laundry, and parlour, and less on mathe- 
matics, Spanish, and light literature, the tone of society- 
would be elevated, and the homes of the Western 
Continent would become still more influential for good. 
My fair transatlantic friends may think these criticisms 
severe ; but candour compels me to charge them further 
with the excessive love of dress, and with being so ex- 
travagant in this respect, that it is the most fertile sub- 
ject of complaint on the part of husbands and fathers. 
Nothing is more common than for a lady to incur 
enormous bills to drapers all over town for silks, satins, 
and India shawls, without the knowledge of the unfortu- 
nate individual who must pay them ; and when she goes 
to Newport or Saratoga for a month in summer, she 
orders a new dress for every morning, and another for 
every evening of her sojourn. The extent to which this 
silly vanity is carried would scarcely be credited, even 
in the gayest circles of Europe. Nor can I overlook 
the injury they do to their own health and the health of 
the nation, by not taking exercise. Not only in the 
towns, but in country quarters, they often sit from sun- 
rise to sunset in rocking-chairs ; the idea of walking- 
appears shocking to them, and as to roaming in the 
woods or climbing hills, they would regard any one who 
proposed such a thing as a madman. Bound a suffo- 
cating stove during winter, and diligently fanning them- 
selves all summer, they lead a sort of butterfly life, 
which may yet tell most unfavourably on the succeeding 
generations. 

" After all, it is not good,"* exclaims honest Miss 



* " Homes of the New World," vol. ii., p. 8. See also {i America 
as I found it," p. 194. 



BEAUTT OP AMEBIC AK" LADIES. 97 

Bremer ; " no, it is not good, it has not the freshness 
of Nature, that life which so many ladies lead in this 
country; that life of twilight in comfortable rooms, 
rocking themselves by the fireside from one year's end 
to another ; that life of effeminate warmth and inactivity 
by which means they exclude themselves from the fresh 
air, from fresh, invigorating life. And the physical 
weakness of the ladies of this country must in great 
measure be ascribed to their effeminate education. It 
is a sort of harem life, although with this difference, 
that they, unlike the Oriental women, are here in 
the Western country regarded as sultanesses, and the 
men as their subjects.' ' 

Having said so much against American ladies, it is 
but fair that I should say something in their favour. 
Few people after they have been a week or two in the 
United States, fail to notice how very seldom they meet 
a plain-looking woman, excepting in districts frequented 
by the Celtic Irish. In Italy and the Grecian Archi- 
pelago, in Andalusia and in England, I have seen much 
more beautiful faces and forms than in any part of the 
Western world ; but in none of these countries have the 
majority of the female sex such claims to correct features 
and pleasing expressions. Tou may walk for an hour 
in Broadway, crowded as it is with people, and not see 
a single repulsive countenance. " I have seen more 
pretty faces," remarks an English writer,* "in New 
York in one hour than in all my life in Britain." My 
own journal for November, 1853, has a similar entry, — 
viz., " I am every day more and more struck with the 
good looks of the American ladies. One seldom meets 
a female with unprepossessing features." I find in my 
note-book for April, 1846, the following testimony : — 
" I have seen more beauties here (New York) in one 
day than I saw during a residence of two winters in 
Edinburgh. They are delicate-looking beauties, how- 
ever, and I dare say soon lose their charms in a climate 

* McLean's " Residence in the Hudson's Bay Territory," vol. ii., p. 
180. 

H 



98 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

so changeable and trying." But, as Shakespeare says 
in one of his little-known sonnets, — 

"Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good ; 
A shining gloss, that fadeth suddenly ; 
A flower that dies, when first it 'gins to bud ; 
A brittle glass, that's broken presently." 

I must, therefore, do .the American ladies the justice 
to say, that they have other claims on our admiration. 
Strangers are frequently surprised at their mental ac- 
complishments and originality of thought. Generally 
well read, and animated in their conversation, they 
strike one as remarkably intelligent, and their lively 
good humour draws away attention from deficiencies 
arising from an injudicious system of tuition. Mrs. 
Stowe observes,* that " conscientiousness with New 
England women is the granite formation which lies 
deepest, and rises out, even to the tops of the moun- 
tains." I would endorse the sentiment, and extend its 
application, more or less emphatically, to the ladies of 
the Eepublic in general. 

New Year's Day is kept as a strict holy day through- 
out the United States, all the stores and shops being 
shut, and business totally suspended. On this day the 
ladies hold levees, expecting a call from every gentleman 
of their acquaintance, and vying with each other in the 
splendour of their drawing-room decorations, and the 
sumptuousness of their refreshment tables. Some re- 
ceive 500 to 700 visits before evening. On this day, 
too, following a pleasing old Indian custom, reconcilia- 
tions are effected ; a call on a person with whom you 
have not been on good terms being regarded as a full 
explanation, and bygones then become bygones at once. 

The Americans, as a people, are not fond of amuse- 
ment. Their theatres are few in number, and those 
few are supported chiefly by foreigners ; you seldom 
hear field-sports referred to even by young men, and 
athletic games have very little place in the affections of 
the nation. To roll balls in a ten-pin alley by gaslight, 

* " Uncle Tom's Cabin," chap, xy, 



KATIOKAL SPOBTS. 99 

or to drive a fast trotting-horse in a light wagon along 
a very bad and very dusty road, seems the Alpha and 
Omega of sport in the United States. I except the 
trotting-matches, or " trots," which take place on courses 
near the principal towns, because, of late years, few 
gentlemen of reputation, however fond of horses and 
excitement, would be seen amongst the crowd of disso- 
lute characters who now own most of the celebrated horses, 
and frequently, at the last moment, refuse to let the 
race go on, that the tavern-keepers, in league with them 
on the ground, may get two days' custom instead of one. 
Many "trots" are got up by low publicans merely to 
sell drink. I never, in my life, saw such a collection of 
ill-looking blackguards as on the course near Philadel- 
phia, and at Oakland, in the neighbourhood of Louis- 
ville, Kentucky. Some of the horses, however, are 
really worthy of attention, from their remarkable shape 
and still more remarkable action. I saw one four-year 
old at Ticonderoga, for which 390Z. had just been paid. 
The Americans, it appears to me, devote far too little 
time to innocent amusement, and that recreation which 
is so conducive to health. Day after day they harass 
their bodies and minds in the counting-house or the 
store-room, making business a slavery, and money- 
making an unnecessary toil. It may be an old world 
prejudice on my part, but I cannot help thinking that 
to the love of her people for field-sports and athletic 
exercises in the open air, England owes much of her 
national greatness. Her fox-hunters have stood vic- 
torious generals on battle-fields famous on the page of 
history ; young men who learned to row a boat at Eton 
have swept the seas in command of Britannia's bulwarks, 
and spirits inured to hardship on Scotland's mountains, 
first imbibing their love of adventure in pursuit of the 
grouse and the red deer, have carried the civilization of 
this little island to the banks of the Murray and the 
slopes of the Himalayas. Pleasure, we all know, must be 
kept in its proper place, but that will be a sad day for 
England when the moor and the loch, the cover and the 

H 2 



100 AMERICA AM THE AMERICANS. 

regatta, the cricket-ground and the golf-field are deserted 
by men who, like our transatlantic brethren, are very 
helots to merchandize and politics. 

It will be unnecessary for me to do more than men- 
tion that the various reformatory and charitable institu- 
tions throughout the United States are just such as one 
would expect in a great free country, where the people 
have sufficient intelligence for self-government, and 
where Christianity exercises a powerful influence. 
There exists, in all parts of the country, admirably-con- 
ducted infirmaries and asylums for the insane, hospitals 
for the blind, and deaf, and dumb, and in many of the 
States schools for the reclamation and instruction of 
youthful criminals. Every separate commonwealth has 
its penitentiary, into which all the modern improvements 
in prison discipline have been introduced. I visited 
the famous one near Philadelphia, so minutely described 
by Mr. Dickens. It then contained 340 inmates, who 
were comfortably lodged, well fed, and supplied with 
valuable books, besides receiving regular visits from a 
moral instruction-agent, and listening every Sunday to 
a sermon. The officials assured me that the charge 
brought against the institution of impairing the mental 
powers of the criminals was utterly destitute of founda- 
tion. 

It is painful to observe that, in many instances, mob- 
violence even yet interferes with justice in the "Western 
Republic, and that wealth and station procure acquittals 
far more readily there than they do in aristocratic 
England. So many American citizens admitted and 
mourned over these evils to me, that I shall not occupy 
V_my space in adducing proof. All who read the news- 
papers will be able to recal sad examples of law being 
overborne, and the sacred principles of right trampled 
upon among our neighbours during the last few years. 
Such cases as that of the Wards, in Kentucky, who 
murdered a schoolmaster in open day, and were yet 
found not guilty by a jury of their countrymen, do more 
towards bringing American institutions into disrepute 



AlMIKtSTBATION OE JUSTICE. 101 

abroad than "wliole volumes of argument, and all the 
nonsense annually talked in houses of representatives. 
Europeans will never believe that a country is really 
free as long as rowdyism reigns rampant in civilized 
cities, and social rank, partisanship or pecuniary bribes 
corrupt the fountain-head of justice. It is mockery 
for citizens of those States, where punishment seldom or 
ever overtakes the rich, to talk of liberty and equality. 
Under the shadow of ultra- democratic governments in 
the other hemisphere, every year judicial decisions are 
given without exciting attention, so unrighteous and so 
strongly marked by a mean subserviency to wealth and 
station, that, were they • pronounced in monarchical 
Britain, no matter how high the authority, the conse- 
quences would endanger the peace of the nation, and 
shake the very pillars of the throne. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Peculiarities of Brother Jonathan — Costume — Nasal tones — Phrases — ■ 
Names — National .boasting — Tobacco chewing — Profane swearing — 
Manners of the Americans. 

It is but reasonable that I should venture on a very few 
remarks in regard to those peculiarities of brother 
Jonathan which have been so unsparingly ridiculed and 
caricatured on this side of the ocean, but I shall do so 
in a very differ ent spirit from that which pervades the I 
fanciful and highly-coloured narratives of Mr. Dickens 
and Mrs. Trollope. Eirst, then, the Americans think it 
necessary to dress in fabrics of the most expensive 
materials. Tou meet men in railroad-cars, and on the 
decks of steamboats, rigged out in superfine broadcloth 
and white waistcoats, as if they were on their way to a 
ball-room, and common workmen you find attired in 
glossy black clothes while performing work of the dirtiest 
description. Eustian and tweeds are seldom seen ; and, 
whilst travelling in shepherd-tartan, I have been stared 



102 AMERICA AtfD THE AMERICANS. 

at as much as an ourang-outang in a menagerie. The 
farmers are the only class who wear rough garments, 
and even their costume, in some districts, is sufficiently- 
ludicrous. The people have yet to learn that apparel 
should be chosen for use not show, that shabby 
broadcloth is the most pitiful of all costume, and that it 
is no mark of gentility to wear a dress unsuitable to 
one's means and employment. 

Then can any one tell me why a nation of sensible 
individuals must needs speak through their noses ? The 
learned differ as to the origin of this strange habit ; but 
whether it has been acquired from intercourse with the 
Indians, by imitating the phraseology of the negroes, or 
from other causes, the nasal tone is now all but uni- 
versal, although much softened and modified in the more 
refined circles of the Atlantic cities. There are, how- 
ever, very few dialects or corruptions of the vernacular 
language in the United States. The inhabitants have, 
no doubt, coined and changed the signification of single 
words ; but you can always understand what they mean, 
and you never doubt that they are speaking English, 
which cannot be said of the good folks in many parts of 
this little island. Eew persons are ignorant that the 
word "fix," with our American friends, means anything 
and everything. I once travelled in a stage-coach over 
the Alleghany Mountains with six western men, w r hose 
conversation and anecdotes amused me exceedingly ; 
especially the significations in which they used this un- 
fortunate or rather accommodating word. I happened to 
pull out of my pocket a ticket for the steamer on the 
Monongahela, when a smart man opposite me from East 
Tennessee immediately called out, " Look here, I ain't 
got none of them fixins." His neighbour, shortly after- 
wards, stroking his chin, soliloquized, " Wall, I guess 
I'd better get fixed (i. e. shaved) at "Wheeling;" the 
" fixins" or eatables at supper were pronounced heavy, 
and a jolly fellow, who sat next me relating his expe- 
riences in travelling with a certain General Cunning- 
ham, who weighed 220 pounds, and a Colonel Talbot, 



PECtTLIABITIES. 103 

who was still heavier, remarked, with reference to a 
stage-coach, " I never in all my life seed such a fixin ; in 
the very first hole the driver ' fixed' (or overturned) her, 
with them two weighty boys on the top of me ; warnt I 
scared and perteeklar riled, and didn't I ' fix' the pro- 
prietors in the Nashville newspapers." 

The Americans display very little ingenuity or good 
taste in their choice of names for towns, rivers, steam- 
vessels, &c. In many instances they have changed the 
euphonious appellations of the Indians by no means for 
the better. For example, the red-men called West- 
port, in Connecticut, Saugatuck ; New York was 
formerly Manhattan, and Mount "Washington, in New 
Hampshire, was " Agiocochook," the Throne of the 
Great Spirit. On the Mississippi you find steamboats 
called the ' Telegraph,' ' Telegraph No. 2,' ' Telegraph 
No. 3,' ' Telegraph No. 4,' the 'Pike,' the 'Lady 
Pike,' the < General Pike,' and the ' U. S. Mail,' while 
the number named after individuals, ' John T.'s,' 
' Samuel A.'s,' ' Jacob R.'s,' and ' Benjamin S.'s,' is 
legion. Then every second village you pass is either 
" Franklin,"- " Monroe," " Jefferson,'" or " Lafayette- 
ville," unless, indeed, it be "Havana," "Springfield," 
" Bloomington," or " Montgomery." 

I was exceedingly struck with the remarkable stature 
of the men who inhabit the Mississippian valley ; they 
are perfect sons of Anak ; in Kentucky you meet few 
under six feet two or three inches, and while standing 
at the bar of an hotel in Louisville, I was startled 
by the apparition of a giant measuring seven feet nine 
inches in his stockings. 

The offensive manner in which Americans, especially 
the less refined, brag of their country and its institutions, 
has been much animadverted on by Europeans. They 
do this far more abroad than at home, feeling justly that 
one who has seen the United States does not require to 
have their praises sounded in his ears, whereas foreigners 
who have never crossed the ocean are apt to forget and 
ignore the claims of the Republic to it« rank amongst 



104 AMERICA A.XV THE AMEBIC AKS. 

the nations. Then, to nse the words of Lady Enimeline 
Stuart "Wortley,* " they feel their destiny ; and we 
should remember what a prospect lies before them." 
This is all very true, and may serve as an explanation 
and an apology ; but in a few years, when better accus- 
tomed to greatness, they will find out that boasting is 
both undignified and unwise. Men may be born to 
"whip universal natur'" without telling the fact to 
every one they meet. I was talking one evening in theH 
dining-room of alarge hotel with a very pleasant southerner, 
about the progress of liberal opinions and the prospects 
of the Anglo-Saxon race, and happened to say, " It 
appears to me that Providence has designed the two 
nations to civilize the globe." A little sharp-featured 
man opposite immediately started up and addressed me. 
"Two nations; guess there's only one, stranger ; goin' to 






annex that island of yours one of them fine days ; — 
don't know how little Vic. will like that, but got to do 
it, no mistake about that." On another occasion, I met 
in a railroad car a true specimen of a Down Easter, a 
regular live Yankee from Maine, who " wanted to 
know" what I thought of " Ameriky," and perseveringly 
plied me with questions likely to elicit a statement of 
my impressions. At the close of the cross-examination, 
after a long pause, and staring me full in the face, he 
summed up as follows : — " "Wall, now, I declare I knowd 
it; we air a great people, and bound to be tolerable 
troublesome to them kings." 

But the most disagreeable — not to say disgusting- 
habit with which our transatlantic friends are chargeable, 
is that of chewing tobacco and spitting. Even in the 
northern and eastern states it offends the European 
traveller, while in the south and west it is carried to an 
excess which defies exaggeration, and renders locomotion 
sometimes a positive nuisance. Excepting when at a 
party or in a lady's drawing-room, thousands of men all 
over the Union keep their jaws in perpetual motion from 
sunrise to sunset A stranger voyaging in a Mississip- 
* "Travels in the United States," vol. i., p. 241. 



TOBACCO-CHEWING. 105 

pian steamboat might well arrive at the conclusion that 
expectoration was a necessity of existence with the 
natives of that region. The deck, paddle-boxes, railings, 
cabins, stoves, and chairs of the vessels are often so be- 
smeared with brown juice, that you cannot distinguish 
their colour. I made a trip on the Ohio with a young 
man whom I never saw but once, even at meals, without 
a quid rolled in his cheek, and who squirted with remark- 
able regularity, according to my watch, seven times per 
minute, or 5040 times in the twelve hours. Another 
person who sat beside me in a Presbyterian church at 
Cincinnati, kept up an incessant fire of liquid tobacco 
during the service, and on one of my first journeys on 
American railroads, between New York and Phila- 
delphia, having been incautious enough to lay my 
writing-desk on the floor of the car, I found it, on rising 
to leave, in the midst of a pool of, and quite saturated with, 
the juice of the weed. K"or can I ever forget a scene 
in the hall of the Virginia Hotel at St. Louis, one wet 
evening in the autumn of 1853, when the floor was a sea 
of rain-water and liquid tobacco, while the spitting 
rendered it impossible for an uninitiated stranger to 
walk about or read the newspapers. In the street, at the 
bar-rooms, or on the decks of steamers, however, one 
can generally, by a little dexterity, avoid being spat 
upon, unless, indeed, he receive an unexpected volley at 
a corner ; but in a railroad car there is no way of escape. 
One man spits on the floor between your legs, another 
out at the window, within an inch of your nose, a third 
over your shoulder on the side of the carriage, a fourth 
makes a target of the door by which you wish to make 
your exit ; you let fall your glove on the floor, it floats 
in tobacco-juice, and your wife's gown is ruined by con- 
tact with the filthy boards of the carriage. I quite 
agree with Dr. Johnson,* who said, " This spitting is as 
gross a thing as can well be done : and one wonders how 
anjr man or set of men can persist in so offensive a practice 
for a whole day together ; one should expect that the 
* "Life," byBoswell, cliap. Ixxvii. 



106 AMEEICA*A1SD THE AMERICANS. 






first effort towards civilization would remove it even 
among savages." 

Candour compels me to say that profane swearing is 
a vice widely prevalent in the United States, especially 
among the Southern planters and the pioneers of the 
Western country. The former habitually use oaths of 
the most appalling kind, coining words, and stretching 
to the utmost their inventive powers, in order more 
emphatically to blaspheme. You hear constantly in the 
public conveyances and hotels of America expressions 
with which few English gentlemen would pollute their 
lips, and now current on this side of the Atlantic only 
amongst thieves and vagabonds. Even reputable men 
in the Republic have yet to learn that apart altogether 
from its sinfulness, the habit is both contemptible and 
meaningless. Bob Acres may hold that there is such a 
thing as " an oath referential or sentimental swearing;" 
but most people in civilized countries have come to the 
conclusion that the practice betokens mental incapacity. 






' l Jack was embarrassed, never hero more, 
And as he knew not what to say, he swore." 

It is a common prejudice in Britain that the Americans 
are a rude people, by no means polite to strangers, and 
disagreeable in their manners. I found them quite the 
contrary, having in all my wanderings only experienced 
two instances of discourtesy ; and I am glad to observe 
that recent English writers, without exception, give a like 
testimony. Lord Carlisle says,* " It is something to have 
travelled nearly over the whole extent of the Union 
without having encountered a single specimen of inten- 
tional incivility." Lady Stuart Wortley t writes : 
" Instead of disobliging in their manners, we find them 
all that is most civil and obliging." Captain Mackinnon, 
in his "Atlantic and Transatlantic Sketches," J bears 
witness as follows : " It is hardly possible for an English- 

* ' ' Lecture to the Mechanics' Institution and Literary Society of 
Leeds." 
t " Travels in the United States," vol. i. p. 26. 
f Vol. i., p. 25. 



MANXES OF THE AMEBICA^S. 107 

man (who has only read of the States) to arrive in any 
one of them without some little apprehension of the 
supposed 'republican rudeness' of the citizens. The 
moment however he lands, this apprehension leaves him. 
He feels at once, almost by intuition, that he is amongst 
as civil people as any in existence.' ' In Sullivan's 
" Eambles and Scrambles in North and South America,"* 
there occurs this passage : "I had a strong prejudice 
against the American people, acquired by meeting very 
bad specimens on the Continent ; but I have convinced 
myself it was unfounded, and I do not hesitate to say 
that I met as agreeable women and gentlemanly men in 
America as the world can produce. I met with nothing 
but civility and hospitality during my stay." Mr. Mackay, 
Sir Charles Lyell, Professor Johnston, indeed every 
author whose verdict is of the least consequence, gives 
similar testimony ; and I should not have thought it 
necessary to allude to the subject, had not the misstate- 
ments of caricaturists been circulated in England more 
extensively than the evidence of writers who value their 
reputation more than a mere temporary popularity, and 
would scorn to obtain readers at the expense of truth. 



CHAPTEB X. 

Manufacturing and commercial enterprise of the United States — Me- 
chanical skill — Changes observed by me in seven years — Statistics of 
progress — Trade and shipping — Factories — Visits to Lawrence and 
Lowell — The operative class. 

I would now call my reader's attention briefly to the 
wonderful enterprise of the American people as mani- 
fested in the extent of their manufactures and commerce. 
There are few Captain Dolittles in the Great Eepublic, 
who rejoice in a "happy vacuity of all employment ;"t 
and those few are rather looked down upon in a country 

* Preface. + " Introduetion to the Monastery." 



108 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

whose' inhabitants regard idleness as dishonourable, and 
are all engaged in some species of trade. It would be 
unwise on our part not to watch the gigantic industrial 
strides making by our neighbours, and the triumphs of art 
and ingenuity even beyond the Alleghanies. Their inven- 
tive capacity and the skill with which they render the 
discoveries of science subservient to the wants of every- 
day life, the magnitude of the works undertaken by 
individuals and companies, and the unwearied activity 
displayed in every branch of material development, force 
themselves upon the notice of every civilized country, 
especially of that which has hitherto been the workshop 
of the world. " America," says Mr. Mackay,* " is yet 
destined to rear up a fabric of commercial greatness, 
such as the world has hitherto been a stranger to. On 
such a theme it would be idle to speculate minutely ; 
but this much at least may be safely predicted of a people 
with ingenuity equal to, and with resources ten times as 
great as ours, and with an enterprise which drives them 
with ardour into every channel of trade, from ransacking 
the South Sea for whales, to trafficking round the world 
with ice." This energy manifests itself in small affairs 
as well as large, in the step of the pedler as well as in 
the countenance of the East India merchant. One day 
I was attracted by a crowd in Broadway, New York, 
accompanying a wagon drawn by six white horses, with 
other carriages behind containing a band of music. I 
ran as fast as my legs could carry me to ascertain the 
cause of this triumphal procession, and the name of the 
conquering hero, and found to my extreme surprise that 
the gaily decorated vehicle was only an advertising 
medium for " Howe's Cough Candy." It might truly be 
said of Brother Jonathan what Tully said of Marcus 
Brutus : Quidquid vult, valde vult. No one can fail to 
be struck with the extraordinary enterprise which so 
honourably distinguishes the United States, — her noble 
merchant ships, superb river steamers, manufactories, 
* " Western World," vol. i., p. 120. 



MECHANICAL SKILL. 109 

railroads, mines and telegraphs, those sure evidences of 
a nation's incipient power. Internal navigation is 
facilitated by canals and slackwaters, news are trans- 
mitted with the rapidity of lightning from one end of the 
Union to the other, the cooking apparatus in the large 
hotels is driven by steam power, and biscuits for exports 
are made by millions with the aid of the same agent. 
Indeed there is no one feature in American commerce 
more interesting than the readiness with which machinery 
is introduced into all branches of industry. They have 
machines for making shirts, all but the gussets ; machines 
for stone dressing, enabling one man to do the work of 
twenty ; machines for spinning, which require only one 
man to a mule containing 1088 spindles, each spindle 
spinning three hanks per day ; machines for door-making, 
by means of which twenty men make 100 panelled 
doors per day ; machines for sewing, at which one woman 
can do as much as twenty with the hand ; machines for 
net-making, saving ninety-nine per cent, of labour ; ma- 
chines for the manufacture of ploughs, which turn out 
thirty in twelve hours. The people of the United States 
are far too well educated and intelligent to form com- 
binations to resist the introduction of machinery, know- 
ing well that, especially in a country where labour is 
scarce, the national prosperity depends very much on 
the readiness with which steam-power is called in to aid 
in manufactures. Thousands of schoolboys in the New 
England and Central States cherish a hope of one day 
rising to eminence by some mechanical invention. On 
all hands you see evidences of the remarkable ingenuity 
of the population. In the large cities it is quite common 
to elevate lofty houses and ware-rooms by means of jack- 
screws, and insert a new ground story on a handsomer 
scale. This process saves roofing, and leaves the other 
flats precisely as before. I have frequently seen wooden 
dwellings in course of transport on rollers from one site 
to another, and even churches may occasionally be met 
coming down the street on a pilgrimage to a more 



110 AMERICA AKD THE AMEBICAKS. 

eligible locality. I was astonished at tlie changes which 
had taken place in the appearance of many of the cities 
in seven years. Whole districts of New York were 
entirely new. The vast increase of traffic in Broadway, 
the greater splendour of the shops, the number of 
immense brick stores which had been built where old 
Dutch edifices and boarding-houses formerly stood, the 
splendid restaurants, printshops, plate glass windows 
and enormous hotels, struck me as soon as I landed. 
Then in the neighbourhood, villas, rows of houses and 
villages are starting up like mushrooms, on spots which 
five years ago were part of the dense and tangled forest ; 
and the value of property every where, but especially along 
the various lines of railroad, has increased in a ratio 
almost incredible. Small fortunes have been made by 
owners of real estate at Tonkers, and other places on 
the Hudson river. In Brooklyn the transformation was 
still more remarkable ; the rows of brick houses, plain 
and faced with marble and brown sandstone, in process 
of erection, being apparently endless. I was informed 
that 1500 to 2000 dwellings are there annually built, 
and invariably let as soon as ready. Even staid old 
Boston had been extended and beautified greatly since 
my last visit ; and though possessed of a retentive 
memory for localities, I should not have recognised 
Cleveland in the handsome and bustling city, which from 
its lofty bluff overlooks the waters of Lake Erie. The 
traveller in America can scarcely fail to observe the 
number of actively employed saw-mills, some of them 
buried in the recesses of the primeval woods, or on the 
banks of wild rivers far distant from the abodes of the 
white man. "Wherever a rapid is found, wherever the 
hunter in his wanderings has reported a cataract, thither 
the enterprising Yankee transports his machinery, and 
there, in the course of a twelvemonth, he establishes a 
flourishing trade. Saw-mills have rendered Glens Ealls 
on the Hudson near Lake Greorge one of the busiest and 
most increasing towns in the State of New York ; 
Ticonderoga drives a similar business on a scale quite 



STATISTICS OF PROGRESS. Ill 

surprising for so secluded a place ; and far away in the 
interior of Michigan I saw steam-engines hard at work 
cutting and planing wood. The governor of Ohio has 
published the following statement, showing the mar- 
vellous prosperity of that State : 

Years. Value of real estate. Value of personal property. 

1841 . . $100,851,837 . . $27,501,820 
1847 . . 324,396,008 . . 79,151,765 
1854 . . 565,000,000 . . 285,000,000 
The number of Post Offices throughout the Union has 
increased from 75 in 1790, to 20,901 in 1852— their 
revenue from 37,935 to 6,925,971 dollars, and the miles 
of mail routes from 1,875 to 214,284. The value of the 
imports has risen in ten years from 100 millions to 216 
millions of dollars ; that of the customs from 18 
millions to 45 millions ; the amount of the cotton 
crop from 800 to 1000 millions of lbs. ; that of the rice 
crop from 80 to 225 millions of lbs. ; that of the sugar 
crop from 155 to 281 millions of lbs. ; that of the wheat 
crop from 77 to 100 millions of bushels ; and that of the 
maize crop from 400 to 600 millions of bushels : while 
the value of the exports of domestic produce approaches 
200 millions of dollars, and of both cottons and woollens 
the States now manufacture three times more than they 
receive from abroad. During the year ending 30th June, 
1852, the tonnage of American vessels entered from 78 
foreign countries was 3,235,522, and that of the American 
vessels which cleared to these countries 3,230,590 ; 
the total tonnage of vessels belonging to the Union was 
.4,138,441, and the tonnage of vessels built during one 
year ending at that date was 351,493. I have in my 
possession a very interesting table, showing the number, 
size, and class of all the vessels launched and on the 
stocks at New York last year, and the total number of 
ocean steam-ships with their names and burden, con- 
structed by the shipwrights of that city. The aggregate 
number of the former is 145, and their tonnage 105,228; 
while since 1840, 66 ocean steam-ships, whose tonnage 
is 106,000, have left the yards ; six of these were of 



112 AMEEICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

3000 tons each, and fourteen of more than 2000: 
the whole sum invested in their construction being 
13,200,000 dollars. I spent a whole day strolling through 
the ship -builders' yards, and along the wharves on the 
East Biver, and was amazed with the number and variety 
of the crafts in the various stages of advancement. At 
one bend of the Delaware, between Philadelphia and the 
sea, I counted no fewer than forty sail ; and nothing 
strikes a stranger more than the clean and trim appear- 
ance of American shipping. The most remarkable vessel 
I ever saw was the mammoth ship, " Great Republic," 
which was unfortunately burnt at her quay when taking 
in her first cargo. She hailed from Boston, cost 300,000 
dollars, and registered 4558 tons. Three large packets 
lying beside her looked like boats when contrasted with 
her ; her spars might have served as masts for ordinary 
vessels. She had a steam-engine on board for hoisting 
them, and her cabins were like apartments in a hotel. 
The Americans carry off the palm in the construction 
and navigation of these splendid liners ; they nearly 
monopolize the carrying trade between their country and 
Great Britain. They have long ago appropriated to 
themselves the South Sea "Whale Eishery ; their clippers 
have a well-earned reputation in the China Seas, and their 
enterprising supercargoes may be found in every corner 
of the globe. Englishmen have at last began to rouse 
themselves from their lethargy, but not until they dis- 
covered American ships and American captains preferred 
all over the world to their own — the former being faster, 
and the latter better educated and paid than those of a 
nation which trusted rather to former supremacy than to 
progressive improvement, to navigation laws rather than 
to superior skill. 

The capital now invested in manufactures throughout 
the Union is immense ; New York and the New England 
States taking the lead, but followed by Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and even G-eorgia and the 
Carolinas. It may be estimated at about 550 millions 
of dollars, of which nearly a fifth has been expended for 



^lANTJFACTUEES. 113 

the spinning and weaving of cotton. The woollen trade 
occupies the next most prominent position. Then there 
are silk works, and leather works, and oil mills, and 
flour mills, besides nearly 40,000 mills for sawing timber, 
and paper factories on an extensive scale. Cincinnati 
has large workshops for iron and brass ; clouds of smoke 
from innumerable foundries darken the air of Pittsburg, 
the Sheffield of the United States. On the 1st of June, 
1850, the value of the articles thus produced was 
1,020,300,000 dollars, a result which throws into the 
shade the industrial exploits of any other nation in the 
same period of time. 

The chief seat of manufactories near New York is 
Paterson, a town of 15,000 inhabitants, romantically 
situated at the foot of the Great Palls on the Passaic 
in New Jersey. There are there several cotton and silk 
mills, the Dolphin works for making carpeting and sail- 
cloth, the Ivanhoe paper works which cost £60,000, and 
four locomotive shops which turn out 200 engines per 
annum. One of these, belonging to Messrs. Rogers, 
Ketchum, and Grosvenor, gives occupation to no fewer 
than 800 men. The water race from the cataract of the 
Passaic forms three distinct descents in driving these 
various factories. The great bulk of the workmen are 
Irish, while most of the managers are Scotchmen. They 
have a short-time bill in 'New Jersey, but no penalty 
is attached to its breach, a fair sample of State legisla- 
tion in many parts of America, where needy orators take 
up a political cry merely to get office without caring one 
straw for the good of the people. In November, last 
year, I paid a visit to the new manufacturing city of 
Lawrence, situated twenty-six miles from Boston, on the 
Merrimack, across which a joint stock company erected 
a granite dam 1629 feet in length, at a cost of 250,000 
dollars. The great works, viz., the Pacific Mills, the At- 
lantic Mills, the Bay State Mills, the Pemberton Mills, 
the Duck Company's mill, and the machine shop, stand on 
the left bank of the stream, close to its margin ; the 
wide mill race runs between them and a long row of 

T 



114 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

boarding houses, and beyond — on sloping ground, only- 
purchased in 1845 for the purpose, and at that time a 
solitude — is the town with its public park, municipal 
hall, and fourteen churches. The people assess them- 
selves 10,000 dollars per annum to support the com- 
mon schools, which are attended by 1600 out of the 
1880 legally eligible scholars. A newspaper was pub- 
lished in this remarkable place, when the editor could 
only obtain sixty-nine subscribers, and before a single 
brick house had been erected. The works all belong to 
joint-stock companies in Boston. Greatly to my sur- 
prise I found an esteemed friend of my own, who was a 
fellow-passenger of mine across the Atlantic in 1846, 
designer and treasurer of the huge Pacific Mill, which 
when completed will cost £300,000, and employ 2500 
people. It has seven stories, each forming one room 
800 feet long, and has sixteen and a half acres of flooring, 
while Titus Salt's new work at Saltaire, in Yorkshire, 
has only twelve. 

The famous manufacturing town of Lowell is situated 
on the right bank of the same beautiful river Merrimack, 
just below the rapid called Pawtucket Palls. It is in the 
State of Massachusetts, but close to the frontier of New 
Hampshire, from which a great proportion of the opera- 
tives come. In former times, before Europeans had 
driven the red men from the Atlantic slope, the ground 
on which New England's Manchester now stands was 
occupied by "Wamesit, the wigwam metropolis of the 
Pawtucket domain. At the junction of the Concord 
with the Merrimack, the Indian warriors often met to 
consult on their waning fortunes and to devise new 
schemes for delivering their native wilds. Towards the 
end of the seventeenth century, however, the increasing 
power of the whites compelled them to forsake the 
graves of their fathers and migrate towards the setting 
sim. Eighty years afterwards a company was formed 
for the purpose of constructing a canal round Pawtucket 
Palls in order to facilitate the conveyance of timber; 
and in 1813 a wooden mill, for the manufaeture of cotton 



FACTORIES. 115 

goods, was erected on the Concord river. Powder mills and 
saw mills soon followed ; and in 1822 there was organized 
the Merrimack Manufacturing Company — the com- 
mencement of a new era in New England's history. 
From that time to the present uninterrupted prosperity 
has been the lot of Lowell, so named after one of the 
founders of its staple trade. In 1828, the Appleton and 
Lowell companies were incorporated ; these were followed 
in 1831, by the Suffolk, Tremont, Lawrence, and Mid- 
dlesex, and in 1835, by the Boott. Besides these there 
were in 1846, when I visited the place, three other 
associations — the Hamilton, Massachusetts, and Prescott. 
I had previously heard much of Lowell, — of the health, 
comfort, and happiness of its manufacturing population, 
— of their superiority in point of education, morality, 
and religious principle, to similar communities in the 
Old "World, and I certainly was not disappointed. No 
rags, no abject poverty, no drunkenness, no coarse 
language, or unseemly behaviour. The mills during the 
day, and the crowded streets in the evening, were filled 
by an orderly, and apparently intelligent people. To- 
wards sunset I walked for two or three hours about the 
streets, and was struck with the decorum which pre- 
vailed. The shops were full — the pavements crowded, — 
thousands of factory girls were sauntering along, enjoy- 
ing the cooling breeze ; but at a little distance from that 
populous town, one might have closed his eyes and 
fancied himself a wanderer by the banks of the 
Merrimack, in the days when the forests were only dis- 
turbed by the war-whoop which warned the hunter of 
the red man's track. The city of Lowell contained in 
1846, 30,000 inhabitants, one-third of whom were opera- 
tives, employed at the various works. Of these, 7000 
were females, and 1000 males. There were thirty-three 
mills, besides the print works, with an invested capital 
of 12,000,000 dollars. They were then making annually 
75,868,000 yards of cloth, 1,500,000 dollars being ex- 
pended in wages. They are not the property of indi- 
viduals, but of joint-stock companies, each company 

12 



116 AMEKICA AHD THE AMEKICAKS. 

being managed by a gentleman resident at the works. 
The partners for the most part live in Boston. The 
machinery is all driven by water power, and the build- 
ings are of brick, substantial and well finished. In 
Lowell there is a very small population permanently 
engaged in manufactures. The girls seldom remain at 
the works longer than five years, but at the end of that 
period return to their rural homes, with a little purse, 
and send their younger sisters to supply their places. 
To encourage this system, the different corporations re- 
quire their workers to board in one of the houses which 
are attached to each mill. There are 550 of these 
boarding-houses, in all of which every attention is paid 
to the health and comfort of the inmates. Those who 
behave improperly are summarily dismissed ; but out of 
6800 girls, mentioned in a late statistical report, only 
forty-nine had been turned off for this reason. Total 
abstinence from intoxicating liquors is regarded as a 
pre-requisite towards obtaining employment ; and the 
moral police system among the operatives themselves, is 
said to be perfect. The rooms are lofty, well ventilated 
and warmed, and the statistics of health encouraging. 
A comparison was made between the bills of mortality 
of Lowell, Salem, Providence, and Worcester, none of 
the three last manufacturing towns, and it was found 
that the first had an advantage of fifteen per cent. I 
was informed, however, last year, that owing chiefly to 
the great influx of Irish and Germans, of a low grade, 
the Lowell operatives have recently rather degenerated 
in point of character. The average wage of the females 
is about 8s. 6d. per week, besides board ; although many 
earn nearly double that sum. The excellent common 
school system of education adopted in all the New Eng- 
land States, sufficiently accounts for the general intel- 
ligence of the operatives. The numerous " Improve- 
ment Circles," or literary societies, at which so many of 
the workers spend their leisure time — the clever articles 
in the " Lowell Offering," written by the girls them- 
selves, the well-frequented libraries and crowded lecture 



THE OPERATIVE CLASS. 117 

rooms bear ample testimony to the existence of u Mind 
among the Spindles." Three-eighths of the girls in 
1846, were church members, and three-sevenths either 
teachers or pupils at the Sabbath schools. How long 
this happy state of things may continue, it is not for 
me to predict ; many believe in its permanence — others 
think the experiment will eventually fail, but in any 
case it cannot but attract the attention of all who are 
interested in the well-being of their fellow men. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The temperance question in America — History and working of the Maine 
Liquor Law — Political manoeuvres in connexion with it — Remarks 
on its English advocates — A word to emigrants. 

Few people can be ignorant that for many years America 
has been the scene of a continued and zealous agitation 
of the temperance question ; originating in the manifest 
necessity of stemming that torrent, which at one time 
threatened to devastate the land, and undermine its 
whole political fabric. The drinking usages of the last 
generation on the other side of the Atlantic were, if 
possible, more degrading than those which prevail among 
ourselves ; and not only Christians, but patriots and 
statesmen, felt themselves obligated to devise measures 
for removing such a stain on the escutcheon of their 
country. Lectures, oral and written, pulpit exhortations, 
mass meetings, total abstinence societies, and such other 
appliances as come under the designation of moral 
suasion, were the only means employed until lately for 
the accomplishment of this end. And it must be allowed 
that they were attended with no small degree of suc- 
cess. The change for the better was observable in all 
classes. The immoderate use of spirits came to be re- 
garded as a disgraceful vice ; the retail liquor trade 
suffered; the religious bodies exerted their influence 



118 AMERICA AKB THE AMERICANS. 

with vigour and firmness ; the commitals for crime 
rapidly diminished ; and cities once noted for baccha- 
nalian occurrences, became quiet and orderly. Sir 
Charles Lyell* bears testimony to the wonderful im- 
provement in this respect ; and during my travels 
through the United States in 1846, I saw but three 
drunken men. The general intelligence of the people, 
and the universal diffusion of education, of course, con- 
duced most materially to aid the efforts made by philan- 
thropists, to bring about this result by the force of 
argument and public opinion, without having recourse 
to legislative enactment, or any modus operandi having 
the appearance of restraint. For some time past, how- 
ever, it has been evident that the disease had only been 
checked, not cured, and with the vast increase of igno- 
rant emigrants, persons to a large extent incapable of 
understanding appeals which had carried conviction to 
the great body of the American people, appeared a cor- 
responding increase of drunkenness and its attendant 
ills. I last year saw many intoxicated persons in New 
York, Chicago, St. Louis, and other populous places 
frequented by the class just referred to ; and even on 
the streets of Puritan Boston, I was jostled by tipsy 
men. A malady of this kind, we know, soon spreads, 
and all over the Union complaints began to be made of 
its revival and injurious effects. At the close of 1853, 
the city of New York alone had 6902 licensed taverns, 
affording a revenue of 69,020 dollars to the corporation ; 
and gin shops had sprung up like mushrooms in every 
State, even in little villages where the temperance refor- 
mation had formerly triumphed, and in the woods of the 
west, where one would scarcely have supposed that there 
were inhabitants enough to support them. Disappointed 
with this new aspect of affairs, and forgetting the suc- 
cess of their former measures, the teetotallers bethought 
themselves of stronger remedies than lectures and 
pledges. It has always been the opinion of public men 



* a 



Second Visit to the United States," vol. i., p. 158. 



THE MAINE LIQUOR LAW. 119 

in the United States, that the trade in intoxicating 
liquors, however lawful in itself, being liable to dangerous 
abuse, like that in gunpowder, medicine, or poison, 
ought to be narrowly watched by the legislatures; and 
none for a moment doubted the right of the governing 
powers to interfera with and restrict it, when necessary. 
"When, therefore, a law was passed in one of the States, 
prohibiting the sale of liquor entirely, it was found, 
after a severe examination and much discussion, the 
question having even been referred to the supreme legal 
tribunal at Washington, to be quite within the powers of 
that State, whatever arguments of a different kind might 
be urged against it ; and seeing that the right of inter- 
ference was admitted, it became manifest that the people 
could carry it to any extreme they pleased, provided they 
did not violate the Act of Congress, which permits the 
importation of foreign liquors, and consequently renders 
it ultra vires any particular State to prohibit them being 
sold in the original package. 

The principal features of the Maine Law are succinctly 
the following. 

1st. The prohibition of the manufacture and sale of 
spirituous liquors. 

2nd. The right to seize and confiscate liquor held for 
illegal sale. 

3rd. The right to search for liquors in private houses 
upon the affidavit of three persons, that they believe 
liquors are held there for illegal sale. 

4th. The appointment of town agents for the sale of 
liquors for medicinal and artistic purposes. 

To these provisions, the good folks of Ehode Island 
have recently added another, by which any person found 
indecently drunk may be confined in the common jail 
until he discloses the name of the person who gave or 
sold him the liquor. Laws nearly identical to this have 
been passed in Vermont, Massachusetts, Michigan, and 
Minnesota ; the British province of New Brunswick has 
followed their example, making an exception, however, 
in favour of malt liquors and cider ; a very small majority 



120 AMERICA. AND THE AMERICANS. 

only, defeated a like measure in Canada;* Illinois and 
Ohio forbid liquor to be sold for consumption on the 
premises ; and Iowa has rendered illegal the sale of it 
by the glass or dram. 

Such is a brief sketch of the history of this movement. 
Leaving out of view the more moderate measures, such, for 
instance, as those taken by Ohio, viz. putting down dram- 
shops entirely, and making intoxication criminal, what has 
been the effect of the unmodified and stringent Maine 
law? Has the entire prohibition of the traffic in fermented 
drinks, either by wholesale or retail, by legislative enact- 
ment, eradicated intemperance? I answer without hesita- 
tion, lN r o ! Can it be enforced ? In many of the villages and 
smaller country towns, it can, and has been, at least to 
a very considerable extent; in most of the cities not at 
all. I have seen with my own eyes, drunken men on 
the streets, and dozens of wine consumed in the hotels 
of large towns subject to the provisions of the Maine 
law ; and I really cannot help expressing my surprise 
that Englishmen, of ordinary intelligence and observa- 
tion, should travel through America, and then come here 
and tell us that liquor of any kind could not be obtained 
for love or money in the States which have passed this 
bill. Such unaccountable misstatements do more harm 
to the temperance cause than the most subtle arguments 
of its opponents. Its sincere friends should discourage 
exaggeration, and carefully examine the credentials, both 
of those who give them information and of those whom 
they employ to diffuse it. But, one may reasonably ask, 
if the desire of the community, as expressed by its re- 
presentatives, in legislature assembled, in some instances 
even by direct vote, is, that this traffic should be pro- 
hibited and stopped, why cannot it be carried into 
effect, just as are the laws against forgery, theft, or 
murder ? "Were the premise of this proposition true, 
there would be no little difficulty in answering the ques- 
tion ; but I join issue with the supporters of this enact- 

* This was written several months since. The newspapers report 
the passage of the measure by a subsequent vote. 



POLITICAL HANCETTYKING. 121 

ment, by denying their assumption that the majority of 
the people concur in approving of the law. The history 
of this kind of legislation shows me that the Maine 
liquor law has been carried in various States, not be- 
cause its advocates had anything like a numerical pre- 
ponderance, but because the two great political parties 
— the Whigs and Democrats — were so evenly balanced, 
that sometimes one, and sometimes the other, agreed 
to do as the Temperance men wished, to secure their 
votes. The latter had only to stand shoulder to shoulder, 
to resolve to poll for no candidate unless he pledged 
himself to support the Maine law, in order to compel 
one of the factions, from sheer necessity, and solely for 
political purposes, to adopt their views. The conse- 
quence, in some eases, has been the passage of that 
stringent enactment, with not the slightest intention, 
not to say power, of enforcing it, — men voting for it, 
and then ironically hurraing for it in their cups ; good 
people at a distance meanwhile being deceived, and 
fancying a great social improvement, whereas there 
was in reality nothing more than a paltry legislative 
trick. 

In so far as the operation of the Maine Liquor Law 
has been to remove temptation from the ignorant and 
debased, it has unquestionably done good ; # and I met 

* This has been especially the case among the lumbermen in the 
forest districts, and the scarcely less refined inhabitants of the seaport 
towns in Maine ; but it by no means follows that such an enactment was 
the best possible remedy for the evils which drunkenness caused in that 
State, as well as other regions of America peopled by wild and lawless 
men. It may have, I have no doubt that it has, produced a marked 
improvement, diminishing pauperism, outrage, and crime ; but there is 
surely a medium between the unlimited licence which prevailed before 
1851, and the extreme rigour of the measure lately adopted, a measure 
which, if properly enforced, amounts to much more than its English 
advocates call it, — " A law for the suppression of tippling-houses and 
dramshops." Some kind friend sent me a bundle of "Ipswich Tem- 
perance Tracts" to convince me of my errors on this subject. Whilst 
the facts and arguments stated in them confirm my belief that a course 
of prudent and wise legislation might materially improve the habits of 
this nation, so far as intemperance is concerned, they do not in the least 
alter my conviction that the Maine Law by its severity, not to say 
injustice, could never be carried into effect in Great Britain, or if hastily 



122 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

several persons who advocated and voted for it because 
it would shut up a number of low tippling shops, while 
their own claret and Madeira would not be interfered 
with. This result, however, could be obtained by far 
less extreme enactments, and those parties would no 
doubt have preferred the law of Illinois or Ohio. But 
no such choice was given them, and rather than per- 
mit the present state of things in their neighbourhood 
to continue, they gave in their adhesion to a measure 
which they thought unnecessarily severe. 

If in some respects and in some districts this kind of 
legislation has been attended with beneficial conse- 
quences, in others, truth compels me to say, it has done 
absolute mischief. In the first place, to pass laws as 
the result of a political manoeuvre and not with any ex- 
pectation of enforcing them, is to bring discredit upon 
representative government and to sap the very foundan 
tions of public tranquillity. Every measure ought to 
express the national opinion, and on questions of this 
kind it is unreasonable to suppose that an extreme, like 
the Maine Liquor Law, should command a majority 
without years of agitation and argument. Further, the 
adoption of this measure in certain cases actually in- 
creased the consumption of ardent spirits. When I was 
in Massachusetts last year, the distillers held a meet- 
ing and resolved to raise the prices, owing to the 

adopted, would create a revulsion of popular sentiment unfavourable to 
temperance. The first and third questions of tract 206 in the above 
series will show at a glance the crude and contradictory nature of this 
truly American specimen of law-making. " Question 1.- — What is the 
Maine Law ? Answer. — It is a law prohibiting the manufacture and 
sale of intoxicating liquors to be used as a beverage. Question 3. — Does 
the Maine Law prohibit the use of intoxicating beverages by individuals 
or families ? Answer. — Its entire prohibitions relate to the sale, and 
not to the use." What quibbling is here ! If no one is allowed to 
make or sell liquor, how can families supply themselves ? Englishmen 
like an honest answer to a plain question, and always suspect trickery 
when contradiction and evasion are manifest at a glance. The Maine 
Law goes much further than restraining or abolishing dram-shops ; 
and whatever good in default of wiser measures it may have effected in 
America, it would never be seriously debated in the Parliament of Gfreat 
Britain, 



ADTOGATES OF THE MAINE LAW, 123 

unprecedented demand. Three facts relating to the 
effect of the measure in the neighbouring State of Rhode 
Island may guide us to a correct conclusion in this 
matter. First, during the week following its passage 
through the legislature, firms who sold liquor in the 
city of Providence did as much business as they had 
ever done before in a twelvemonth ; — second, as soon 
as it received the sanction of the authorities, private 
clubs were instituted where spirits were kept in a press 
for the use of the members, and to one of these presses 
alone there were 300 keys ; — third, at Newport, a 
fashionable bathing place on the coast, much frequented 
by southerners, no attempt was ever made to carry out 
the provisions of the bill, the bar-rooms existing there 
just as before. It is not necessary for me to have re- 
course to any elaborate reasoning on this subject ; the 
few hints which I have thrown out may serve to show 
that society cannot be reformed by a coup de main, or 
permanently benefited by a hasty adoption of over 
stringent laws. When listening to the sanguine speeches 
and predictions of the advocates of this Maine Law in 
the United States, I have often been tempted to reply in 
the words of Marcus Andronicus to his kinsman Titus. * 

1 ' brother, speak with possibilities, 
And do not break into these deep extremes. "+ 



* "Titus Andronicus," Act iii., Scene i. 

f By misrepresenting the foregoing testimony, certain parties who 
have more zeal than discretion, and certain others whose advocacy 
brings even good projects into disrepute, have attempted to weaken its 
force. It is because I feel deeply interested in promoting a rational 
feeling against the excessive use of intoxicating drinks, and in favour 
of judicious laws to prevent the increase and regulate the practice of 
gin-palaces, that I deprecate agitation to obtain a measure which repels 
all wise and moderate men, and can never please any but the select 
few who are never happy except when running into ridiculous extremes. 
The temperance party in this country will have to revise their modes 
of proce dure, and be more particular in their choice of agents, if they 
wish to produce that impression upon society which is their professed 
object. The people of England care little about mere theorists, and 
don't believe in Utopia. They will laugh at folks who propose a Maine 
Liquor Law, but have shown themselves always ready to consider well- 
digested schemes of practical reform. 






124 AMERICA A1S T D THE AMEBIC ANS. 

One word, before I close this chapter, to those of our 
hard-working artisans, who are ever and anon, during 
the intervals of their daily toil, casting a longing eye 
towards America, as a land specially blessed by Provi- 
dence and "flowing with milk and honey." Some 
of you may have friends and relations, hewing down 
the timber in the great western forests, or gradually 
acquiring a handsome competence by patient industry 
in the cities of the Atlantic slope, and you hear 
from them occasionally about the free political insti- 
tutions, the high wages, the gratuitous schools, and 
the other inducements offered by the great republic to 
the labouring classes of Europe. They tell you, perhaps, 
that land of the finest quality, and in the most desirable 
situations, may be purchased at 5s. an acre, and that 
when no buyers appear, the price is sometimes reduced 
to 4s., or even 3s., in order to encourage settlers; that- 
all men are there on an equality, as far as social dis- 
tinctions are concerned ; and that tradesmen of ever 
description may easily find employment in any plac 
between Boston and St. Paul. These representations, 
I know, are made by every mail, and thousands of our 
fellow countrymen are at this moment hesitating 
whether to make the best of it at home, or to cross 
the North Atlantic for the purpose of pushing their 
fortunes under the rising star of empire. Now there 
are certain requisites of success on the part of an 
emigrant, which it may be well for me to mention, viz 
youth, health, activity, industry, and sobriety. One who 
is indolent, or intemperate, or who cannot apply himself 
sedulously to his task, will very soon find his mistake if 
he venture amongst the Yankees. The remarkable 
number of druggists' shops, the vast army of physicians, 
the placards announcing cough mixtures, and cures for 
fever, ague, and rheumatism, the pale sickly youths, and 
drooping maidens, whom the traveller meets every day 
on the other side of the Alleghanies, afford ample 
evidence that America is the last place where a man 
ought to go, unless his strength and constitution fit 






A WORD TO EMIGBAXTS. 125 

hhn for vigorous exertion. The valleys of the Missis- 
sippi and Missouri, the region of the Great Lakes, and 
the wheat lands of Ohio, have certainly no such deadly 
climate as that which deters men from settling in Central 
America or Sierra Leone ; but those who are not blest 
with a robust frame, will find them far more trying to 
the physical powers than this little sea-girt isle. The 
extremes of heat and cold, the undrained marshes, and 
dense dark woods, the mode of living, and unremitting 
toil, soon enfeeble and shatter the constitution of one 
who might, even in cold rainy Scotland, live to a good 
old age. Further, let those who have arrived at middle 
life, and who therefore cannot easily change their habits, 
think twice about it before they go to America. If they 
act rashly in this matter, they may soon experience the 
truth of the proverb, that "all is not gold that glitters," 
and long, when too late, for the home and the locality 
which they have forsaken. There are not a few English- 
men of this class in the United States who bitterly 
regret having crossed the stormy sea. The case is dif- 
ferent, however, with those who have strong and dutiful 
children arrived at men's and women's estate, readv to 
support them when they land on the foreign shore. 
America offers great inducements to those having nume- 
rous families ; many aged patriarchs are living there now 
in the midst of their sons and daughters, their flocks and 
their herds, supplied with all the comforts and even the 
luxuries of life, who, had they remained here, would in 
all probability have been still working in the barnyard 
or the factory. But to all intending emigrants, young 
as well as old, those who have earnings to invest and 
those who have not, I would say, you must not expect a 
paradise ; if labour is well paid, clothing and house-rent 
are dear also ; and he who anticipates a garden of self- 
producing bananas in Illinois or "Wisconsin, will one day 
repent his folly in sackcloth and ashes. It is no child's 
play to cut down American timber, or bring into cultiva- 
tion the new land of the West. It has prematurely im- 
paired the constitution and shortened the days of not a 



126 AMEBICA AKD THE AMEEICAKS. 

few who entered upon their task with all the buoyancy 
of youth, and all the energy of the Anglo-Saxon character. 
To those who have resolved to bid good-bye to the 
scenes of their childhood, and to seek under the star- 
spangled banner a new field for exertion and another 
home, need I say, do not forget your native country, the 
fountain-head from whence all the greatness of the United 
States has flowed ; in your log-hut, beneath the maple- 
trees, cherish a kindly remembrance of the land where 
your forefathers sleep ; in the public assembly, at the 
polling stations, in the exercise of your rights as freemen, 
always keep in mind that he who promotes a good 
feeling between Great Britain and America, will be 
regarded in after ages as a benefactor to his race. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

Consequences of religious persecution — Its influence on the colonization 
of America — Theological colleges in the United States — Statistics of 
the various sects — The Methodists and Baptists — Distinction of 
classes in Transatlantic congregations — The Episcopalians and Inde- 
pendents. 

The impolicy of persecution for conscience sake, even in 
its most modified form, will now be readily admitted by 
all intelligent men ; indeed, every year witnesses large 
accessions to the numbers of those who agree with Mr. 
Macaulay,^ that " people who preach to rulers the duty 
of employing power to propagate truth, would do well 
to remember that falsehood, though no match for truth 
alone, has often been found more than a match for truth 
and power together." The student of ecclesiastical his- 
tory can recal to mind many instances in which the very 
measures used by religious tyrants have proved of signal 
benefit to the cause which they wished to destroy. In 
some of these we can trace the operation of natural laws 

* Review of Mr. Gladstone's work on " Church and State." Tra- 
vellers' Library Edition, p, 69. 



KELIGIOUS PEKSECtJTION. 127 

— publicity leading to investigation, and despotic pro- 
ceedings engendering sympathy for the oppressed ; but 
in others we feel ourselves constrained to recognise the 
immediate agency of an overruling providence. Zurich, 
the capital of the Swiss Reformation, Avhere Zwingluis 
thundered against the corruptions of Rome, owes its 
great prosperity to an edict of the Papacy which in the 
sixteenth century compelled the Protestant citizens of 
Locarno, on the southern slope of the Alps, to leave 
their native land. They, migrating across the mountains, 
brought with them that knowledge of manufactures 
which has beeii of such vital importance to the city I 
have named. 

One hundred years later the Catholic princes of- Ger- 
many combined to root out the adherents of Lutheranism, 
and to re-establish everywhere the religion of Rome. 
Por a time success attended their arms ; but the emer- 
gency raised up a hero, the brilliancy of whose success 
filled Europe with admiration. The name of Wallenstein 
and the exploits of Tilly paved the way for conquests 
which have procured for Gustavus Adolphus a deathless 
fame. " Thus it followed," says Ranke, in his " History 
of the Popes,"* "as a necessary consequence, that an 
enterprise, originated and sanctioned by the Catholic 
opposition for political purposes, resulted in the advan- 
tage of Protestantism." 

Again, the incredible exertions made by Louis the 
Fourteenth to annihilate dissent in Prance, produced a 
re-action immediately on his death which threatened to 
sap the very foundations of priestly power ; men who 
had by violence been driven to conform became reckless 
innovators, and measures undertaken for the express 
purpose of giving to the Church undisputed sway, 
proved, in the long run, most hurtful to its influence. 

Or, to take an illustration from the history of our own 

country, had not the Stuarts in general, and James the 

Second in particular, favoured despotism and popery, 

the people of England would not have cherished so 

* Bonn's " Standard Library," vol. ii., p. 283. 



128 AMERICA A^D THE AMERICANS. 

fondly as they do now that love of liberty and attach- 
ment to the principles of the Reformation, which have 
given them snch a commanding position among the 
nations of the globe. Opinions, which in the time of 
Cromwell were peculiar to Independents, became, before 
the accession of William and Mary, the sentiments of 
all but the fanatical adherents of the exiled race. The 
attempts made by Rome to restore its supremacy in 
Great Britain, proved the surest means of making that 
very government the mainstay of Protestantism. 

Finally, the Conventicle Act of 1664, by which it was 
declared seditious and unlawful for more than five 
persons, exclusive of the family, to meet together for 
religious worship according to any other than the ritual 
of the English National Church, — the reiterated at- 
tempts made to compel uniformity to its observances — 
and the vexatious enactments passed, from time to time, 
to arrest the progress of Puritanism, were the means 
used by God to establish on the other side of the At- 
lantic ecclesiastical institutions destined to spread over 
countries far more extensive than the combined mo- 
narchies of Europe. So strikingly has God thus made 
the wrath of man to praise Him, that with truth we 
may say that the persecutors have more reason than the 
persecuted to exclaim with the Erench poet, — 

' ' Perisse a jamais 1'affreuse politique 

Qui pretend sur les coeurs un pouvoir despotique 
Qui veut le fer en main converter les mortels, 
Qui au sang heretique arrose les autels." 

The history of colonisation in the United States fur- 
nishes the most remarkable examples of the manner in 
which the Almighty has made the projects of religious 
tyrants to further the cause of religious liberty. Apart 
altogether from New England, the home of the Pilgrim 
Fathers, the history of whose settlement is well known 
to you all, a great portion of America east of the Alleg- 
hanies was first peopled by those whom clerical oppres- 
sion had banished from their fatherland to seek rest and 
peace in another hemisphere. The earliest attempt 



THE PTTEITANS. 129 

made to form a colony in America may be traced to a 
party of French Huguenots ; Peter Minuets afterwards 
led over a body of persecuted Walloons ; refugees from 
Virginia founded the original townships in the Carolinas ; 
Pennsylvania owed its existence to the desire of the 
Quaker community to seek in America that freedom to 
worship which had been denied them in Europe ; and a 
company of Covenanters, flying from their enemies in 
Scotland, rendered Jersey the cradle of Presbyterianism 
on the other side of the Atlantic. Mr. Hepworth Dixon, 
in his " Life of William Penn," # relates that the only hope 
of that benevolent man for the future, " lay in a vague 
but romantic dream that a virtuous and holy empire, 
equally free from bigotry and the dead formalism of 
state religions, might one day "be founded in these mag- 
nificent wildernesses of the New World which had 
so often formed a topic of the family conversation." 
How far this dream has proved a reality it will be my 
present object to show. The Puritans, who from the 
* Mayflower' landed on the bleak shores of Cape Cod, 
sought only a quiet home and liberty to erect meeting 
houses for the service of God ; little did they think that 
before the middle of the nineteenth century their de- 
scendants would exercise a mighty influence in forming 
the character of a nation destined, at no distant day, to 
spread the knowledge of Christianity from Torres 
Straits to Cape Horn. 

New England has a rigorous climate and sterile soil ; 
but industry and frugality have rendered it far more 
wealthy than countries which Nature has profusely 
blessed ; and the same strict attention to moral and re- 
ligious duties which characterized the first settlers has 
given their children a position over an entire continent 
most potential for good. "It appears," remarks Miss 
Bremer,f " that the reformers and the lecturers who 
develop the spiritual and intellectual life in America, 

* Page 23. 

f " Homes of the New World, 55 vol. L, p. 45. New York : Harper 
and Brothers. 



130 AMEEICA AND THE AMEEICAKS. 

and call forth its ideal, come from the Northern States, 
from New England, and in particular from Massa- 
chusetts, the oldest home of the pilgrims and the 
Puritans." I was much struck by the testimony borne 
by the rough inhabitants of the western country to the 
praiseworthy efforts of the missionaries and school- 
masters from the east, who act as leaven in a society 
formed of materials which otherwise might prove dan- 
gerous to the security of the Union. A Boston man 
may be found occupying some honourable situation in 
every village of the Mississippian valley ; and through 
the exertions of this class, Socialism, Mormonism, and 
other systems subversive of good government, have been 
prevented from taking firm root or producing their 
legitimate effect on the morals of the population. If it 
were not for the religious zeal of Massachusetts, the inha- 
bitants of vast territories in the far west would be left 
without instruction to the uncontrolled exercise of their 
lawless passions and the evil example of infidels and 
rationalists from abroad. In the South, too, where 
drunken quarrels, murders, and outrages of every kind 
still abound, where the people, by their free votes sanc- 
tion the repudiation of just debts and refuse to adopt 
an educational system, where you find a general laxity 
of principle and disregard of social ties, all good men 
look to New England influence for the ultimate salvation 
of society. By means of commerce, and in schools, the 
sons and daughters of the North-eastern States are 
gradually acquiring a position, as well in the city of New 
Orleans as on the plantations of Arkansas, which will 
one day render them the virtual rulers of the country, 
and the reformers of every abuse at present retarding 
its moral and material advancement. 

Before recording my own impressions of the state of 
religion in the American Union, or narrating what I 
saw and heard relative to this subject, it will be neces- 
sary to have recourse to some facts and statistics which 
may prevent misapprehension and enable us to form 



THEOLOGICAL COLLEGES. 131 

more correct conclusions. Too many travellers in the 
western hemisphere have imagined that the circle of 
their acquaintanceship faithfully represented the eccle- 
siastical opinions prevalent in the country, and without 
any previous information derived from tables or books, 
they have been misled by the plausible statements of 
interested parties, and have judged of things in general 
from the particular section which came under their own 
observation. Miss Bremer, for example, gives a most 
ridiculous prominence to the schemes of social and re- 
ligious fanatics, into whose society she happened to have 
been thrown, but of whose verv existence nine-tenths of 
the people are profoundly ignorant. The same authoress 
also remarks, " The two great divisions of the Church in 
the United States appear to be Trinitarian and Unita- 
rian,' J while in reality the latter are a mere handful in 
comparison with the former. Some clever writers on 
America might have spent a few days very profitably 
studying the census returns, the guide books, and the 
almanac. 

There were, in 1854, forty-four theological colleges in 
the United States, having 127 professors, and attended 
by 1449 students. Of these ten were Presbyterian, 
nine Baptist, six Independent, and three Episcopalian, 
the others being connected with the smaller Protestant 
denominations. Their libraries contained very nearly 
200,000 volumes. It has been the fashion on this side 
of the Atlantic to sneer at these institutions, and no 
doubt they do not all come up to our standard of what 
is required of divinity halls ; but the seminaries of An- 
dover, of Princeton, of Tale, and of Auburn, need no 
panegyric of mine. They occupy the very foremost rank 
as schools of theology ; their teachers and graduates 
stand on a footing of equality with those of Edinburgh 
and Grottingen ; and in them a body of men has been 
educated for the Christian ministry, far superior in 
theological attainments to those brought up either at 
Oxford or at Cambridge. 

k2 



132 



AMERICA AND THE AMEBIC AKS< 



The respective strength of the various religious de- 
nominations may be best seen by a reference to the 
following table, compiled from the census of 1850 : — 



Denominations. 


No. of Churches. A ^™fl' 

Accommodation. 


Methodist . . . 


. 12,467 ... 4,209,333 


Baptist . 


. i 8,791 ... 3,130,878 


Presbyterian . ; 


. 4,584 ... 2,040,316 


Independent 


. . 1,674 ... 795,177 


Episcopal 


. 1,422 ... 625,213 


Lutheran 


. . 1,203 ... 531,100 


[Roman Catholic 


. 1,112 ... 620,950 


Christian . „ 


812 ... 296,050 


Friends ... 


714 ... 282,823 


Union 


. . 619 ..*. 213,552 


Universalists 


494 ... 205,462 


Free .... 


361 ... 108,605 


Moravians . . 


331 ... 112,185 


German Reformed 


327 ... 156,932 


Dutch Reformed 


324 ... 181,986 


Unitarian 


243 ... 137,367 


Mormonite . 


110 ... 29,900 


Tunker . . . 


52 ... 35,075 


Jewish 


31 ... 16,575 


Swedenborgian . 


. , 15 ... 5,070 


Minor Sects. 


325 ... 115,347 


Total . . 


. . 36,011 ...13,849,896 



The value of the Church property may be estimated at 
about eighty-seven millions of dollars, or nearly eighteen 
millions of pounds sterling. 

It appears from the above tabular statement that the 
Methodists and Baptists are numerically not only the 
strongest sects, but united are stronger than all the 
others put together. There exists, however, considerable 
diversity of sentiment among the members of both these 
religious parties ; and perhaps it may scarcely be fair to 
classify them as undivided whilst really to some extent 



METHODISTS AtfD BAPTISTS. 133 

composed of separate communions. Their strength lies 
chiefly in the southern and western States, where they 
are the pioneers of Christianity in the wilderness, carry- 
ing it with indefatigable zeal into districts only partially 
settled and recently explored. They may be styled the 
home missionaries of America, and in this capacity are 
invaluable, although trusting too much to mere excite- 
ment of the feelings, and laying undue stress, when 
preaching to men almost in heathen ignorance, upon 
doctrines peculiar to their own creed. True religion 
gains little from wild harangues resulting in fire hundred 
people being immersed in a tub at the foot of the pulpit 
stairs, or from appeals addressed to backwoodsmen in 
favour of this particular mode of baptism. These two 
denominations in general agree in objecting to theological 
colleges, and an educated ministry; consequently an utter 
want of refinement, and expressions which a well-instructed 
community would not tolerate, frequently distinguish 
their pulpit oratory. A friend of mine in Virginia told me 
that he once heard a Baptist preacher say, " Brethren, 
your former pastor was in the habit of feeding you with 
fat things, such as puddings, and pies ; I am now to 
bring you back to the boiled ham and greens." Another, 
trying to familiarize his hearers with the character of 
Our Saviour, exclaimed, "My friends, he was just another 
General Jackson for ye." And a Methodist in the West, 
waxing fervent about justification by faith, is reported to 
have remarked, " It is as impossible for a sinner to get 
to heaven without Christ, as for an eel, well anointed 
with lard, to climb up a pole, tail foremost." A marked 
change has however of late years taken place in many 
parts of the country in the sentiments prevalent among 
the members of both these sects, with regard to the 
proper tuition of those designed for the ministry, caused 
in a great measure by the admirable work on this subject 
published by Mr . Angell James, of Birmingham. Schools of 
divinity have already been established in several places, 
and many of the Methodist and Baptist pastors in the 
large towns have received quite as good an education as 



134 AMERICA A1S T D THE AMERICANS. 

tlieir brethren in other sects. This peculiarity of theirs 
attracts towards them the poorer and worst instructed 
classes of the population, and no stranger travelling in 
the United States can fail to observe the absence of that 
admixture of ranks in a congregation which is the glory 
of Christianity. The church recognises no distinction 
between rich and poor, master and servant, bond and 
free ; but you may go into hundreds of Episcopalian 
or Presbyterian chapels in America without seeing a 
single working-man, whilst the uneducated orators be- 
longing to the denominations just referred to every 
Sabbath address thousands who gain their livelihood by 
the sweat of their brow. If an Englishman did not 
know where to look for them, he might, even after a resi- 
dence of some duration on the other side of the Atlantic, 
imagine that the poorer classes there never went to 
church at all. 

The Episcopalians, whose first bishop was consecrated 
only sixty-nine years ago at Aberdeen in Scotland, have 
now 33 bishops and 1600 clergymen throughout the 
Union. The rich and fashionable very generally adhere 
to this communion. Puseyism some years since made 
considerable progress amongst the junior clergy; but its 
doctrines have lately been decidedly on the wane : the 
churches where they were preached are deserted, whilst 
crowded congregations attend the ministrations of the 
evangelical party. Several intelligent men remarked to 
me that the soil of America was not congenial to the 
growth of such views, and that whatever chance there 
might be for some doctrines opposed to the usual belief 
of orthodox Protestants, there was none for Anglo- Catho- 
licism. Some of the most solemn and powerful discourses 
to which I ever listened were delivered in places of wor- 
ship connected with the Episcopalian Church of the 
United States. 

Congregationalism still maintains its hold over the 
people of New England. During the present century, 
the Baptists and Episcopalians have both increased con- 
siderably in that part of the Union ; but Independency, 



THE PBESBYTERIANS. 135 

notwithstanding the Unitarian heresy, is still, and in all 
probability will ever be, in the ascendant. The sons of 
the Puritans retain the distinctive views on church 
government which compelled their fathers to leave their 
native land ; a great and growing nation now professes 
them, and that very persecution of dissenters in the 
seventeenth century has been the means in the hands of 
God of spreading their principles over the continent of 
North America. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Subject continued — The Old and New School Presbyterians — Causes of 
their disagreement — The Unitarian heresy — American places of wor- 
ship — Sacred music — Terms of Church communion — Style of preach- 
ing — Increase of religious feeling of late years — Albert Barnes — Dr. 
Addison Alexander — Dr. Tyng — Henry Ward Beecher — Mr, Everts — 
Mr. Chapin, the universalist orator. 

Most nearly allied to the Congregationalists are the Pres- 
byterians, who flourish chiefly in the middle and western 
States, and, taking everything into consideration, may be 
safely regarded as the most influential and intelligent 
denomination in the Union. They are divided into two 
great bodies, the Old School and the New. Between the 
moderate men of these parties little or no difference of 
opinion exists, and several of them to me lamented the 
separation. The preaching of the former is, however, in 
general, more Calvinistic than that of the latter ; and 
though the New School has not yet had time to develop 
its action, it has already exercised a most beneficial 
influence in rousing the church from its torpor, in puri- 
fying its communion, in originating schemes of benevolent 
enterprise, and in altering the style of pulpit addresses, 
so as to awaken men from a false security to holy action 
and serious thought. The atonement question continues 
still to be a bone of contention between the divines of 
these two sections ; and another cause of the disruption 
was the refusal of the Old School ministers any longer 



136 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

to support the American Board of Foreign Missions, a 
general catholic society, like the London Missionary, 
having its head quarters in Boston. The Reformed 
Dutch Church, especially in the State of New York, has 
likewise a great many congregations, second to none in 
point of intelligence and Christian zeal. 

So similar are the views held by the Presbyterians and 
the Independents of America, so closely bound together 
are the two sects, that most people regard them as one, 
and use their respective appellations as convertible 
terms. In Connecticut I found that the Congrega- 
tionalists, who form a large majority of the population, are 
usually called Presbyterians ; and not only there, but in 
other parts of the country people seemed surprised that 
I should speak of the denominations as distinct and 
separate. When a Boston man goes southward, he 
naturally joins a Presbyterian Society; and a New Yorker 
removing to Massachusetts, connects himself, as a matter 
of course, with the Congregationalists. I have met 
ministers who have presided over churches governed in 
both ways, and who thought the difference so immaterial 
that they would just as soon accept a charge in one body 
as in the other. 

The first church in America which embraced Unitarian 
views was an Episcopalian one, at the head of School- 
street in Boston. Several of the old Puritan churches 
followed its example, and the new views continued to 
spread till the wealth and influence of the city had 
become nearly without exception Socinian. "We need 
not go very far or search very deep for the causes of this 
change. Dr. Channing graphically describes both its 
origin and its progress, when writing to Blanco "White, 
in the year 1839 : he says, " I would that I could look 
to Unitarianism with more hope. But this system was 
a protest of the understanding against absurd doctrines, 
rather than the work of deep religious principle, and was 
early paralyzed by the mixture of a material philosophy, 
and fell too much into the hands of scholars and political 
reformers ; and the consequence is a want of vitality and 



UNITARIAN HEEESY. 137 

force, which gives us little hope of its accomplishing 
much under its present auspices, or in its present form." 
The fact is that the hypercalvinistic style of preaching 
and the fanatical manners current at a certain period in 
the history of JSTew England, gave rise to a revulsion of 
public sentiment, and from one extreme the people ran 
to the other." Andrew Puller, narrating his own expe- 
rience in England, says, " My father and mother were 
dissenters of the Calvinistic persuasion, and were in the 
habit of hearing Mr. Eve, a Baptist minister, who, being 
what is here termed high in his sentiments, or tinged 
with false Calvinism, had little or nothing to say to the 
unconverted. I therefore never considered myself as 
any way concerned in what I heard from the pulpit.' ! 
It was preaching of this sort, treating man as a mere 
machine, and leaving out of view repentance and 
faith, which threw so many churches in New England 
into the arms of Sociniamsm ; and those most intimately 
acquainted with the local ecclesiastical history of that 
country can bring forward remarkable individual exam- 
ples of the certainty with which this cause produced its 
natural effect. One might attend service in many 
Unitarian churches throughout America without detect- 
ing false doctrine. It is a fashionable system of formalism 
rather than an active heresy. The addresses from the 
pulpit will strike an Englishman as very similar in 
substance and style to those delivered in many places of 
worship connected with his own Established Church. 
They are moral essays, not expositions of biblical truth 
exhortations which might as well be derived from the 
Koran as from the Scriptures ; admonitions to fulfil 
social and moral duties rather than calls to embrace that 
Gospel which apostles and prophets proclaimed. The 
majority of those who attend the Unitarian chapels in 
Boston most certainly do so not because of any intellec- 
tual belief in the dogmas of that sect, but simply on 
account of their being the fashionable sanctuaries, where 
men can safely go without incurring the danger of having 
their consciences roused. But, even this denomination 



138 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

is divided into two distinct parties, who have little in 
common with respect either to creed or practice. The 
serious Unitarians have introduced prayer meetings ; 
some of their ministers, Mr. Huntingdon, for example, 
preach with great faithfulness ; and in many ways they 
exhibit a tendency to orthodoxy : on the other hand, 
Mr. Starr King and those who agree with him seem to 
wish rather to widen the breach between them and evan- 
gelical bodies ; occasionally, one after another of this 
class adopts first Universalism, next Transcendentalism, 
and then Pantheism, till having tried all the isms in 
succession, and taking something from each, he is 
prepared to agree with Theodore Parker, who in his " Dis- 
courses"* declares, "He that worships truly, by whatever 
form, worships the only God : he hears the prayer, 
whether called Brahma, Pan, or Lord, or called by no name 
at all ! Each people has its prophets, and its saints ; 
and many a swarthy Indian, who bowed down to wood 
and stone — many a grim-faced Calmuc, who worshipped 
the great God of Storms — many a Grecian peasant, who 
did homage to Phoebus Apollo, when the sun rose or 
went down — yes, many a savage, his hands smeared all 
over with human sacrifice, — shall come from the east, and 
the west, and sit down in the kingdom of God, with 
Moses and Zoroaster, with Socrates and Jesus." It is 
remarkable how many American Unitarians have, after 
various changes, adopted extravagancies of this sort. 
There are scarcely two ministers of the denomination 
who entertain the same sentiments, or could agree upon 
a creed. They preach to very thin audiences in the 
afternoon, it being too much trouble for their fashionable . 
hearers to go to church twice a day. Unitarianism only 
keeps its ground even in Boston, while the Evangelical 
bodies are making decided progress. In the country, it 
never obtained a footing of any consequence, nor can it 
ever, from its spirit and policy, exercise a powerful 
influence upon the masses of the people. 

St. George's Episcopal church in Stuyvesant-square, 

* Page 83. 



PLACES OF WOE-SHIP. 139 

New York, may be taken as a specimen of the chapels 
lately erected in the aristocratic quarters of American 
cities. It is built of massive stone ; when completed 
will have two tall spires ; a rectory in the same architec- 
tural style adjoins it, and the carved oak ornaments, 
painted windows, and beautiful altar, must strike every 
one with admiration. It is seated for upwards of 2000 
people, and the galleries are supported not by pillars, 
but by wedge-like beams firmly attached to the lateral 
walls. Many of these fashionable sanctuaries remain 
closed during the hottest summer months, when minister 
and people remove to the springs or the sea-side. I 
went in the afternoon of the first Sunday which I spent 
in America last year, to a well-known Presbyterian place 
of worship, and was at its porch confronted by a placard 
announcing that it would not re-open until the first of 
September. Leaving out of account these splendid new 
erections in the Italian and G-othic styles, American 
chapels in general may be described as oblong structures 
of brick or wood, painted white, and fitted up internally 
with the greatest possible attention to comfort. The 
nicely stuffed mahogany seats with footstools and sloping 
backs, the carpeted passages, and the speaker's rostrum, 
consisting not of a pulpit, but of a table of rosewood 
with a marble slab, a desk in the centre, and a sofa 
behind it, present a striking contrast to the rude build- 
ings in which our countrymen worship Grod. Some of 
my readers may recollect the passage in " Waverley,"* 
where the hero of the story " distinguished, not indeed 
the ringing of bells, but the tinkling of something like 
a hammer against the side of an old, mossy, green, 
inverted porridge pot, that hung in an open booth, of 
the size and shape of a parrot's cage, erected to grace 
the east end of a building resembling an old barn." Our 
transatlantic friends must be quite at a loss to under- 
stand this description ; for they can scarely believe that 
the Presbyterians of Scotland do as painful penance in 
the chapel pews, as the Eoman Catholics on the cathe- 

* Vol. i., p. 310. 



140 AMEEICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

dral floors. The stillness, too, of American congregations 
will attract the attention of those accustomed to the 
constant coughing, clearing of throats, and shuffling of 
feet, which must appear most unseemly and irreverent 
to a stranger visiting this country. All the worshippers 
are in their seats before the service begins ; or if an 
unlooked-for detention has rendered any individual late, 
he comes in quietly, and not in that hasty, careless style 
affected by people on this side of the Atlantic. The 
preponderance of the male sex struck me as a remark- 
able and a very promising characteristic of Christian 
assemblies in various parts of the Union ; I observed 
this not only in the large cities of the Atlantic seaboard, 
but in the Mississippian valley, and on the shores of the 
lakes. How different such a state of things from that 
on the continent of Europe, where you seldom see men 
in church at all ! The organ is universally used by the 
various religious bodies in America, and if many chapels 
in the country do not possess one, the reason will be 
found not in any obsolete prejudice against its solemn 
tones, but merely in the expense of the instrument. 
The music is generally suitable, affecting, and simple ; 
nevertheless, the people do not join in the psalmody. 
This unpleasant and unaccountable peculiarity attaches to 
all denominations, more particularly the Episcopalians, 
Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, who seem to 
think that they can praise Grod by proxy through the 
performance of a band. I have frequently felt inclined 
to ask the question, Are places of worship mere concert 
halls ? " This, however," says Miss Bremer,* " I have 
to object against the hymns of the United States, that 
they are sung by a trained choir in the gallery, and all 
the rest of the congregation sit silently and listen, just 
as they would sit in a concert-room. Some accompany 
them reading from their hymn-books, but others never 
open theirs. When I have occasionally lifted up my 
voice with the singers, I have seen my neighbours look 
at me with surprise." This description is strictly accu- 

* Vol. i., p. 241. 



CHTTECH COMMTJETOK. 141 

rate ; I have likewise observed every eye turned towards 
me when I joined in the tune ; surely our intelligent 
friends in America do not believe that any mere instru- 
mental or choral music can be so acceptable to God as 
the voices of His worshipping people, melodiously 
blended in an anthem of praise. There will be song in 
heaven, arising not from the seraphim, not only from the 
four and twenty elders, who, with harps and golden vials 
full of odours, fall down before the Lamb, but from a 
countless multitude redeemed out of every kindred, and 
tribe, and people, standing on the sea of glass which is 
before the throne. 

Most Protestant sects in the United States receive 
into their communion only such as bear evidence of vital 
Christianity. There is a much more marked distinction 
than with us, between those who are members of 
churches and those who are not. Persons with whom 
I conversed maintained that this separation gives religion 
an healthy tone, and operates most favourably for its 
strength and progress. They regretted at the same 
time the excessive inquisitorialness in certain parts of 
the country, especially in the rural districts of New 
England, where a zeal for purity without discretion has 
instituted tests of fellowship having no sanction in the 
Holy Scriptures. There are ecclesiastical organizations 
in America into which none but teetotallers would be 
received, whose members durst not attend an evening 
party, regarding dancing- as in itself a sinful act, and 
yet permitting their office-bearers to fail repeatedly in 
business without investigation or remark, although these 
very failures were looked upon as fraudulent by the 
entire mercantile community. Some folks on the other 
side of the Atlantic, seem to think that it is impossible 
to do evil in matters where dollars are concerned. 

The American style of preaching struck me in 1846 
as too lifeless and cold ; but in 1854 this seemed to 
have undergone a change, and people who formerly 
defended the phlegmatic manner of their clergymen 
agreed in praising the altered mode of pulpit addresses. 



142 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

The fanatical vehemence of uneducated preachers tended, 
it appears to me, to drive men of prudence and refine- 
ment to the opposite extreme ; and perhaps the decrease 
of the former, combined with greater intercourse between 
the United States and Europe, have brought about the 
happy medium. One of my principal objects in visiting 
America was thoroughly to understand its religious state 
and prospects ; and with this in view, besides endeavour- 
ing to form as general an acquaintance as possible with 
those likely to be best informed on this subject, I usually 
attended church three times every Sunday, not selecting 
sanctuaries noted for the talents of their pastors or the 
influence of their congregations, but entering wherever I 
saw an open door, and confining my visits neither to 
particular sects, nor to particular quarters of the cities. 
On looking over my journal, I find accounts of services 
in places of worship connected with the Reformed Pres- 
byterian, the Methodist Episcopal, the Unitarian, the 
[Reformed Dutch, the Universalist, and the Wesleyan 
Union Methodist denominations, besides those of twelve 
sermons in Episcopalian, five in Baptist, thirteen in Inde- 
pendent, and fifteen in Presbyterian churches. I select 
only six of the most remarkable on which to bestow a 
passing word ; of the others suffice it to say that not one 
sermon preached in orthodox chapels was objectionable, 
while the majority were distinguished by marked ability, 
and struck me as greatly above the average of discourses 
which one hears either in England or in Scotland. They 
were also sound expositions of Scripture, enforced with 
apt illustrations, and followed up by earnest appeals to 
the various classes in the auditories. Some of them 
will for ever remain impressed on my mind, as eloquent 
and solemn be}^ond expectation. In scarcely a single 
instance, too, did I find a place of worship only partially 
filled. If attendance at divine service forms any test of 
a country's Christianity, then the Northern, Central, and 
Western States of America are the most Christian terri- 
tories in the habitable globe. In many cases I could 
scarcely get a seat, chapels holding 1200 to 2000 people 



ALBERT BAEXES. 143 

being quite full. A great improvement has taken place 
in this respect since my former visit in 1846, and several 
friends spoke to me of the increasing interest in religion 
manifested of late years throughout the Union at large. 
Of all the American clergy, perhaps no one has a more 
extensive European reputation than Mr. Albert Barnes, 
whose commentaries on Scripture and other theological 
works have already been circulated far and wide in Pro- 
testant countries. Before the dawn of day the light of 
his study-lamp may be seen flickering in the gloom, by 
any one passing the sanctum where so much has been 
written by a man still in the flower of his age. An early 
riser, a diligent student, an economist of opportunities 
and time, he has found leisure in the midst of his pastoral 
duties to perform essential service to the cause of 
biblical literature. His church, in Washington-square, 
Philadelphia, belonging to the New School Presbyterian 
denomination, was crowded by an intelligent auditory 
when I heard him. He preached from the 59th and 
60th verses of the 119th Psalm, one of the most closely- 
reasoned, clear, and impressive discourses to which I ever 
listened. The drift of the address was to prove the free 
agency and responsibility of man. 

If Mr. Barnes enjoys the greatest celebrity among 
New School divines, Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander, of 
Princeton College, is the "Magnus Apollo" of the Old 
School Presbyterian church. I mixed with a congrega- 
tion numbering at least 1500, who last winter were pre- 
sent in the Dutch Reformed place of worship, Pifth 
Avenue, New York, when he delivered one of a series of 
lectures under the auspices of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association connected with that chapel. Taking as 
his text the words in Isaiah, 53rd chapter, 3rd verse, 
" He is despised and rejected of men," he reviewed in a 
masterly manner the cold reception with which Chris- 
tianity met in a world generally ready to prove credulous 
enough, and welcome with eclat any new religious system, 
however unintelligible or absurd. Dr. Alexander is one 
of the profoundest thinkers in America. His powerful 



144 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

intellect, perspicacity of arrangement and finished style 
of composition, showed themselves in almost every sen- 
tence of this prelection. 

The Episcopalians in the United States can boast of 
not a few remarkable pulpit orators, first and foremost 
amongst whom stands Dr. Stephen H. Tyng. He now 
preaches in the splendid edifice situated in Stuyvesant- 
square, New York, to which as an architectural ornament 
I have already alluded. JSTo minister throughout the 
country occupies a more distinguished position as a 
platform speaker. His ready command of language, 
powerful periods, and frequent rhetorical flights, ensure 
for him on all occasions a numerous audience. The 
first time I heard him address a meeting he was 
applauded once and again to the very echo. In the 
pulpit he is fervent, pointed, and startling ; fond of prac- 
tical subjects, he states his sentiments with a terseness 
which impresses them at once on the mind, and every 
stranger must be struck with his felicity of expression 
and unhesitating plainness of speech. He is quite noted 
for rebuking prevailing follies. I heard him once 
administer to his people a severe reprimand for extrava- 
gance in dress. Another discourse from Exodus, 24th 
chapter, 12th verse, was one of the ablest to which I have 
ever listened in any country. His congregation is not 
only numerous, but liberal, influential, and zealous in 
every good cause. 

The Beecher family are well known to the ecclesias- 
tical world on the other side of the Atlantic. The aged 
father, in his anxiety to serve the slave, removed froi 
Boston to Cincinnati, that he might be nearer the State* 
whose institutions he had devoted all his energies t< 
reform. His son, Dr. Edward Beecher, as a writer an< 
a divine, enjoys a distinction seldom attained by one at 
his period of life ; his daughter, Mrs. Harriet Beecher 
Stowe, presents the most remarkable example in the 
history of literature, of one publication obtaining for its 
writer a world-wide fame ; and of all American preachers 
none possesses such a wonderful power over his audience 



HESRT WABD BEECHEE. 145 

or attracts so great a crowd as Henry "Ward Beecher, 
of Brooklyn. Three thousand people, alternately 
laughing and weeping, every Sunday hang upon his lips. 
There is too much excitement and singularity about his 
mode of instruction for my taste. The service altogether 
struck me as deficient in solemnity and decorum ; and 
however sacred may be the cause of liberty, men go to 
church to hear the Gospel, not to listen to the wrongs of 
the African race : but as an orator, a master of invective, 
sarcasm and declamation, very few either in Europe or 
America will bear a comparison with Mr. Beecher. 
Erom the words, " Wo unto you, .scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites ! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, 
and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous ;"* — I heard 
him pour forth a torrent of indignant eloquence, which 
seemed to sweep over the vast congregation like a tro- 
pical tornado. Many a tear rolled over cheeks unused 
to weeping ; scarcely was time given to wipe them away 
before the same features were forced into a smile ; and 
during the most solemn appeals a silence positively 
painful prevailed. The speaker's change of voice, pos- 
ture and manner, added not a little to the interest felt 
in his discourse. 

The Bev. Mr. Everts, of the Baptist church, "Walnut- 
street, Louisville, in Kentucky, may be unknown to fame, 
I certainly never heard of him as a Mercury among trans- 
atlantic divines ; but one Sabbath evening while residing 
in that city, I joined a stream of people hurrying to 
attend a lecture delivered by him, on the probable effect 
on Christianity of the Chinese Revolution, and the anti- 
cipated European war. The preacher spoke with exces- 
sive vehemence, reminding me more of Scotch than 
American clergymen ; but from the second chapter of 
Isaiah he struck out an original train of thought, rivet- 
ing the attention of his hearers by vigorous suggestion, 
clear reasoning, and forcible language. "Whether or not 
the high compliments he paid to Great Britain excited 
the enthusiasm of the choir, I do not know, but un- 

* Matthew, chap, xxiii. ver. 29. 
L 



146 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

doubtedly they sang the concluding hymn to the tune of 
" G-od save the Queen." 

In the course of my wanderings through the streets 
of New York, I stumbled into the Universalist Chapel 
below Prince-street, in Broadway, and heard the Key. 
E. H. Chapin, the most celebrated orator of that religious 
sect. He is a short, thick-set man, full of energy and 
fire, has a distinct and powerful voice, and does not dress 
in the usual clerical costume. He preached from Luke, 
19th chapter, 41st verse : Jesus w r eeping over Jerusalem. 
It was in some respects the greatest rhetorical effort at 
which it has been my good fortune to be present, either 
on this or the other side of the ocean. Eor brilliancy 
of description and splendour of imagery I do not think 
it could well be exceeded. I can almost fancy that I 
hear him yet apostrophising the Holy City, as, looking 
down from Olivet, he pointed out its temple and palaces, 
and recalled the associations connected with it in the 
minds both of the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and 
the Mussulman, the American who dwells in a new 
country far away over the sea and the Arab who feeds 
his camels by the ruins of Tadmor in the wilderness. I 
thought of the well-known passage in "Tancred" descrip- 
tive of Jerusalem by moonlight ; but Chapin attempted 
and succeeded in a higher flight than ventured on by the 
genius of Disraeli. The speaker proceeded to say that 
his text illustrated in the first place, " the intense 
humanity of the Saviour," under which head he declared 
that the majority of Christians at the present day remove 
Him from their sympathies in a vain attempt to do him 
honour. This part of his discourse was distinguished for 
its touching and stirring appeals and its undisguised 
Socinianism. In the second place, he remarked, the text 
showed "the philanthropy of Christ, of whom he spoke as 
a manifestation of the Divine love.' ' Then followed a won- 
derfully eloquent peroration on the love of G-od to men, 
which he declaredwas the one and the onlymoral influence 
fitted to regenerate the world. Lastly, to a congregation 
composed of the vulgar genteel, sadly overdressed and by 



OBSERVANCE OP THE SABBATH. ' 147 

no means first class in appearance, yet perfectly still and 
attentive to every word uttered, he addressed a conclud- 
ing appeal of striking power, and called upon them to 
look forward to that happy time when the influence of 
God's love shall be felt by all who need it, and when 
universal humanity shall respond " Hosanna in the 
highest." 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

Subject continued — Observance of the Sabbath — Recent English testi- 
mony to the power of Christianity in America — The Bible, Tract, 
and Missionary Societies — Statistics of church accommodation com- 
pared with those of England and Scotland — Effects of having no 
State Church — Recognition, as a nation, of religion — Roman Catho- 
licism — Popular feeling against the priests and Irish voters — Policy 
of the Roman Church in the West — Decrease of its adherents — 
Dissensions among them — The great Republic not a genial soil for 
the papal tree. 

Ik many parts of the United States, JSTew England in 
particular, the traveller will find copies of the Bible lying 
on the table of every hotel bedroom, steamboat cabin, 
and railway waiting- apartment. The circulation of the 
Scriptures throughout the Union is enormous ; for 
wherever the Anglo-American goes, the Christian's text- 
book follows with its ennobling sentiments to elevate 
and refine. The stranger will be surprised to observe 
the quietness and decorum which prevail on Sabbath, 
even in cities with a population of the most miscellaneous 
character. The K"ew Englanders, if possible, keep the 
day more strictly than the Scotch. Their trains and 
steamers stop running, and very few neglect the assem- 
bling of themselves together. I do not remember in 
the course of all my wanderings to have seen a single 
person working at a trade, or a single store open on 
Sunday. Even in New York, notwithstanding the vast 
number of resident foreigners, you cannot get an omni- 
bus, the carts and wagons disappear, and the chief 
thoroughfares, crowded during other days with men 

L 2 



148 AMEBIC A AKD THE AMEBIC ANS. 

and carriages, become on the Sabbath still as those of a 
country village. Broadway, bustling as it is on the last 
day of the week, on the first reminded me of George' s- 
street in Edinburgh. Yon see occasionally a pleasure 
party on their way to Westchester county or Staten 
Island, but public opinion sets in strongly in favour of 
Sabbath observance, and at church hours thousands of 
people going to and from the various places of worship 
throng the pavements. I now and then took a walk 
through the poorer districts of the city, but invariably 
found all the shops shut, except eating-houses and liquor 
stores, frequented by French and Germans. The same 
remark applies to the smaller towns, at least to those of 
them where the uneducated Irish have not settled in such 
numbers as to influence the general practice. In Chicago 
I observed beer-shops, cigar divans, oyster cellars and 
restaurants open, whilst the shops were all closed ; but, 
as on the previous day, I had heard, not only German 
and French, but Dutch and Norwegian spoken in the 
streets, I was at no loss to account for the circumstance. 
The manners of the people in the region of the lakes are 
to some extent affected by the example of sceptics and 
rationalists from abroad, but the Anglo-Saxon reverence 
for religion has nevertheless even there obtained an ascen- 
dency which nothing can now weaken, much less destroy. 
On Sunday morning you see a long line of farmers' wagons 
approaching the village chapel, where the horses are made 
fast to the palings and left to themselves till service is 
over. At nine o'clock numerous- groups of neatly- 
dressed boys and girls collect at the doors of the Sunday- 
schools, and at half-past ten crowds of worshippers, 
such as you seldom indeed witness in England, press on 
towards the places of worship. My friends agreed in 
thinking that the feeling in favour of the day of rest 
being better observed was gaining ground everywhere, 
and that a great change in this respect had taken place 
during the last few years. 

As to the state of religion generally throughout the 
Union, instead of recording my impressions in words of 



CHRISTIANITY IK AMERICA. 149 

my own, I will copy some brief extracts from three recent 
writers who had excellent opportunities of observing, and 
with whom I entirely concur. " Taking each country as 
a whole," says Mr. Alex. Mackay,* "the religious 
sentiment is more extensively diffused and more active 
in its operations in America than in Great Britain. . . . 
Are proofs required of its vitality and energy? Look at the 
number of its churches, the extent and character of its 
congregations, the frequency of its religious assemblages, 
the fervour of its religious exercises, and the devotion of 
its religious community testified by their large and multi- 
farious donations for religious purposes, both at home 
and abroad." "Nowhere, indeed, on the face of the 
earth," remarks Miss Bremer, t "has the Christian con- 
sciousness of true human freedom attained to so full a 
recognisation as in the United States ; nowhere has it 
expressed so universally, and still expresses, both by 
word and deed, the doctrine that pure religion is the 
foundation and fortress of sound morality ; that the true 
worship of God is the true love of man ; that the most 
acceptable sacrifice which can be presented to the Father 
of Nations is the sight of a free, pious, and happy people, 
all of whom have equal rights and equal opportunity to 
acquire the highest human worth, the highest human 
happiness." Lastly, let us listen to the opinion of Lord 
Carlisle, as expressed in his lecture before the Mechanics' 
Institution and Literary Society of Leeds : " Without 
venturing to weigh the preponderating recommendations 
or deficiencies of the voluntary system, I may fairly ask, 
what other communities are so amply supplied with the 
facilities of public worship for all their members ,? The 
towns, old and young, bristle with churches ; they are 
almost always well filled ; the Sabbath, in the Eastern 
and Northern States at least, is scrupulously observed ; 
and with the most unbounded freedom of conscience, and 
a nearly complete absence of polemical strife and bitter- 
ness, there is apparently a close unity of feeling and 



* a 



Western World, vol. iii., p. 253. 

Homes of the New World," vol. ii., p. 624. 



150 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

practice in rendering homage to God." To these testi- 
monies, let me add the words of Dr. Duff to the last 
General Assembly of the Tree Church of Scotland : " It 
is a matter of delightful assurance that there are already 
about 36,000 churches in the United States, or one for 
every 500 or 600 inhabitants, and the great bulk of these 
churches are in the hands of parties substantially evan- 
gelical. Christianity, according to the general belief, is 
an integral part of the American constitution ; or, as 
they put it, the Bible in the English language is 
Americanism." 

No sooner do our transatlantic friends establish a new 
settlement and build dwelling-houses for themselves, 
than they set about the erection of schools and churches ; 
for these purposes they never grudge money, but give 
with a liberality which surprises strangers, and a promp- 
titude which shows how justly they estimate the impor- 
tance of moral and religious truthbeing diffused throughout 
the community. The have not only built 36,000 churches, 
but have at present a large body of missionaries among 
the Indians ; and at the meetings of the various societies 
in New York last May, their incomes for the year were 
reported as follows :— 

Dollars. 
American Tract Society ...... 414,159 

American Bible Society ...... 395,000 

American Board of Foreign Missions . 189,266 
American Home Missionary Society . . 191,209 

Besides these four great catholic societies, there are 
many others of less note, and also the Home and 
Foreign Missionary Societies specially connected with 
the various denominations. It is gratifying to know 
that their aggregate income is not only rapidly in- 
creasing, but already amounts to such a sum as reflects 
the highest honour on a country so young and contain- 
ing a population of so miscellaneous a character. 

At the commencement of a former chapter I exhibited 
a table containing the number of churches in the United 
States and their respective accommodations. It is now 



CHUECH ACCOMMODATION 151 

necessary for me to call the attention of those who 
doubt the possibility of voluntary contributions pro- 
viding for the spiritual wants of the community to the 
very remarkable result of the American census returns 
of 1850 compared with those of the British census for 
1851. They are as follows : — 

In England there is a place of worship for every 545 
inhabitants. In Scotland there is a place of worship 
for every 850 inhabitants. In the United States there 
is a place of worship for every 6M inhabitants. In 
England the proportion of population to church sittings 
is as 1 to 1'8 ; in Scotland as 1 to 1*5 ; in the United 
States as 1 to 1*6 ; # so that America, a comparatively 
new country, including vast regions in the west, sparsely 
settled and but semi-civilized, actually stands on a par, 
so far as chapel accommodations are concerned, with a 
land whose Christianity dates from the sixth Century, 
where the Church is established by law and fostered by 
regal power. It is not for me, on the present occasion, 
to enter upon polemical controversies or to advocate 
any particular theory, but a regard for truth requires 
me to call attention to this result of an experiment 
likely to prove of such incalculable importance in the 
future history of the world. Not only in the eastern 
States but in the Mississippian valley, even in the far dis- 
tant west, the spontaneous liberality of Christians has 
provided ample church accommodation for the population, 
notwithstanding the unprecedented ratio of its increase. 
Chicago, in 1853, for 60,662 inhabitants, had sixty-one 
places of worship, though a great number of French and 
Germans, indifferent to religion, reside there ; and St. 
Paul, the capital of Minnesota, situated 2070 miles 
from the mouth of the Mississippi and near the geogra- 
phical centre of the North American continent, has 

* The population of England in 1851 was 16,921,888 ; the number 
of churches 30,990 ; the number of sittings 9,345,138. The popula- 
tion of Scotland in the same year was 2,888,742; the number*:' 
churches 3395 ; the number of sittings 1,834,805. The population of 
the United States in 1850 was 23,191,918; the number of churches 
36,011 ; the number of sittings 13,849,896. 



152 AMERICA A:S'P THE AMERICANS. 

already six churches for a population of about 5000. 
An enlightened British public will not be slow to draw 
their own conclusions from facts so wonderful as these. 
They need no argument to follow them up, but must 
carry conviction to every candid mind. There is another 
aspect of the voluntary principle, as it works in America, 
to which I feel it to be my duty to allude — viz., the 
absence of bitterness in religious controversy and the 
friendly feeling existing between evangelical Protestant 
denominations. There is no jealousy of each other's 
rank, no sense of superiority or the opposite ; but all 
meet on a footing of equality, all preach the same doc- 
trine, except the few decreasing Puseyites, all actively 
support and manage the common schools, and some- 
times, in a little town, you find the Sabbath-schools of 
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents united 
and taught in the same building. The entire and com- 
plete separation of Church and State, by removing a 
never ceasing cause of disagreement, goes far to mitigate 
the odium iheologicum, and renders Christianity less 
likely to repel the philosopher and the scoffer. " This 
separation between religion and politics," says Sir 
Charles Lyell, # " is certainly one of the healthy features 
of the working of the American institutions." Not 
that fanaticism and miguided zeal do not, on the other 
side of the Atlantic, as on this, occasionally inflame the 
passions of men, but that, to use the expressive words 
of Mr. Mackay,f " Sect is not there the envenomed and 
embittered thing which it is in this country." The 
ecclesiastical arrangements of Great Britain, to some 
extent, force both churchmen and dissenters to enter 
the arena of political strife, and Parliament becomes 
every now and then the scene of unseemly religious 
wrangling, which benefits no one, but strengthens the 
hands of the infidel. Our transatlantic friends, in form- 
ing their system of government, wisely avoided this 

* " Second Visit to the United States," vol. i., p. 179. 
+ "Western World," vol. iii., p. 278. 



yXTlOSAL RELIGION. .153 

union ; and they assert that many Church and State 
men among ourselves, whose conservative feelings and 
early associations attach them to an institution venerable 
from its antiquity and historically famous, had they to 
frame a constitution anew, would follow the example set 
them on the "Western Continent ; and, in proof of this, 
they £>omt to our colonies, to Australia and Canada, 
where the various denominations are regarded as on a 
footing of equality by the common law. How far this 
reasoning may be correct, it is not for me to judge. 
My part is performed when, without partisanship or 
colouring, I submit it to public consideration. Let it 
not, however, be supposed that the Americans do not 
occasionally, as a people, acknowledge the government 
of the Most High. For nearly a century now they 
have been acting on the voluntary principle ; but the 
extreme views entertained on this subject by a section 
of British Dissenters have received as yet from them 
no response. Their legislative "councils are opened with 
prayer by clergymen specially appointed for that pur- 
pose ; their Navy List contains chaplains as well as 
commanders ; and the governors of the various States 
proclaim, in the name of the civil authorities, the general 
fasts. The old Puritan custom of setting apart, towards 
the end of the year, a day of thanksgiving for national 
mercies, has lately extended over the whole Union. 
Each commonwealth chooses the day most convenient 
for its citizens, and the chief magistrate, in his official 
capacity, announces it to the people. I can testify that 
in New York it was as strictly observed as the Sabbath 
in any Scottish town, every shop being closed, business 
quite suspended, and the churches exceedingly well 
filled. The evening of the day is generally devoted to 
family parties and re-unions of friends. All this appears 
to me pleasing and proper ; and, while showing that a 
nation can be Christian without a Church establishment, 
it may also teach men of ultra opinions amongst our- 
selves, that the best principles may be rendered inopera- 



154* AMERICA A.KD THE AMEBICANS. 

tive and repulsive when carried to an unnecessary 
extreme and stated in terms which do not recommend 
themselves to the good sense of the community. 

I cannot close these observations on the religious state 
of America without referring to the progress and pro- 
spects of Eoman Catholicism in the "Western Hemisphere. 
There is no subject which lately has occupied more of 
public attention on the other side of the Atlantic than 
the pretensions of the Papacy. I was surprised to find it 
the staple topic, not only in religious circles, but in rail- 
road cars and steam-boats, in the valley of the Missis- 
sippi as well as on the eastern slope of the Alleghanies. 
Not that the people of the United States concern them- 
selves about the particular doctrines of that church or 
use any exciting measures to inflame the public mind in 
opposition to them ; but some of the bearings of the 
system on political liberty have not failed to attract the 
attention of a nation so shrewd and so jealous of their 
constitutional privileges. Pirst and foremost, the per- 
nicious influence of Irishmen and Irish votes throughout 
the Union, but especially in New York, where the 
priests often control the elections, is regarded with a 
feeling of deep and increasing dislike by the great body 
of the inhabitants.* "Whilst I was in America in the 
autumn of 1853, popular opinion, on more than one 
occasion, manifested itself in a most unmistakeable 
manner against the agents of Popery ; as for example, 
when they, in conjunction with German infidels, tried to 
change the Sabbath laws in St. Louis, Missouri ; when 
they attempted to put a stop to open-air preaching in 
New York ; when the police in Cincinnati arrested. some 
foreign exiles for hooting Cardinal Bedini ; and when 
Archbishop Hughes asked a share of the common school 
fund that the Koman Catholics might establish semi- 
naries of their own. These demonstrations were so 

* The Know-Nothing movement is the result of this feeling. Its 
wonderful success, however temporary it may prove, shows the over- 
whelming power of Protestantism in America, when occasion calls for 
its exercise. 



POLICY OV THE KOMAN CHURCH. 155 

overwhelming that the questions in dispute will not 
likely again disturb the national tranquillity. In all 
parts of the country I heard complaints of foreign pre- 
lates interfering in the domestic affairs of the nation ; of 
priests exercising an unconstitutional power over igno- 
rant voters ; and of American bishops connecting them- 
selves with the persecuting tyrants of Europe. It struck 
me that the feeling against the papacy was nearly as 
-strong in the United States last year as it was in England 
during the passing of the " Ecclesiastical Titles Bill." 

The Church of Rome has adopted a wise policy on the 
Korth American continent. Instead of wasting time 
and money in a vain conflict with Protestantism on the 
Atlantic seaboard, where the principles of the Pilgrim 
Eathers have thoroughly imbued the population, and 
where it would be necessary to enter the lists with 
the ablest champions of the Reformed faith, she has 
turned her attention to the "Western countrv, to the 
prairies of Illinois, the meadows along the Missouri, and 
the wheatlands of Wisconsin and Iowa — erected semi- 
naries on spots likely to become centres of influence, 
sent Sisters of Charity to alleviate the physical woes of 
the pioneers, and fortified herself at various points in a 
region which her sagacity had indicated as the future 
seat of dominion and power. The Erench settlements 
in Louisiana and Canada West afforded a nucleus for 
these missions to the growing territories of the Great 
Republic ; and eager to avail themselves of the opening 
' thus presented, the emissaries of Rome, besides occupy- 
ing the Mississippian valley, have pushed on their out- 
posts beyond the limits of civilization, where the Kansas 
and Platte roll down to swell the Missouri, and the St. 
Peters bisects the hunting grounds of the wild Sioux. 
But neither zeal nor good policy can obtain for Roman 
Catholicism a permanent ascendency in any part of the 
United States. It is at variance with the institutions 
of the country ; it is alien to the sentiments of the com- 
munity, and consequently, although increasing numeri- 
cally, owing to the vast immigration from Europe, it 



156 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

has for some time been relatively on the decrease, the 
third generation usually going over without reservation 
to Protestantism. Most men with whom I conversed 
on the subject, attributed this defalcation mainly to the 
influence of the education given to the children of Irish and 
other Catholic parents at the common schools. The Ame- 
rican Union does not offer a kindred soil in which to plant 
the papal tree. The people are too well educated, too 
intelligent, too much attached to the cause of civil and 
religious freedom, to submit their consciences to priestly 
government or observe superstitious rites. Political 
liberty and ecclesiastical despotism cannot well co-exist 
for any lengthened period. One or other, by the force 
of antagonism, sooner or later gives w r ay. The leaders 
of the Romish Church in America are not only aware of 
this state of things, but are straining every nerve to 
prevent the European adherents of their Church emi- 
grating to a country where their faith is undermined by 
a well-organized system of common schools. Arch- 
bishop Hughes, moreover, finds it no easy matter to 
keep his own people in order. Last year a congregation 
in Buffalo refused to allow their church property to be 
conveyed to the prelates, and Cardinal Eedini threatened 
them with excommunication in consequence, but the 
number of their sympathizers throughout the country 
rendered caution necessary on the part of those who had 
every wish to be severe. Sir Charles Lyell* believes 
that "Romanism will undergo many salutary modifica- 
tions under the influence of American institutions.' ' 
This is not the popular impression in the United States. 
Some there are who take that view of the question ; 
others believe in the eventual success of a Church which 
has shown such foresight and perseverance ; but the 
great body of the people look upon Eoman Catholicism 
as an institution doomed to crumble away and disappear 
with the creed of the Indians in the pathless forest. 
Contact with American institutions, they hold, must 
always act upon it as the rays of a summer sun on 
* « Second Visit to the United States," vol. ii., p. 292. 



• 



ROMANISM Itf AMERICA. 157 

block of ice ; and for it to aid in developing the resources 
of the west, according to them, is only to assist in dig- 
ging its own quiet grave. I have heard grandchildren of 
Irish Roman Catholics speaking of the final triumph of 
Popery in America as no more likely than the sudden 
disappearance of the sun. Formerly it asserted almost 
undisputed dominion over that continent from the 
mouth of the St. Lawrence to the halls of Montezuma, 
and southward beyond the regions where the Incas 
reared their lofty throne ; but during the present cen- 
tury one country after another has fallen into the hands 
of Anglo-Saxon Protestants, and the day appears to 
many not far distant when the United States will become 
the scene of their most signal and important victory. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Common School System — Its nature, operation, and results' — Cha- 
racter of the teaching — Educational Statistics — Colleges — New York 
Free Academy — Influence of the system on the religious state of the 
country. Parties opposed to it — Its effect on the political action of 
the nation, and on the prosperity of the Church of Rome. 

The foregoing remarks may enable my readers to form 
some idea of the state of religion in the American 
Union. I now purpose giving a brief outline of 
that rapidly extending and highly popular system of 
common school education which the people regard as 
the foundation and security of constitutional liberty ; 
as indispensable to the well-working, not to say the 
existence of republican government, as the safety- 
valve of democracy and the necessary accompaniment 
of social and political equality ; a system indeed without 
which the country could not keep its position among 
the nations. Every intelligent man with whom I 
conversed on the other side of the Atlantic, so far 
from doubting its efficiency, spoke of it as the stone 
on which the entire superstructure of American institu- 
tions rests, to remove which would be to dissolve the 



158 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

Union, and sow broadcast over the land the seeds of 
anarchy and crime. General instruction we find to be 
a fundamental element in the compact which binds 
together the citizens of every state. In New England 
the constitution of each commonwealth contains some 
such provision as the following : " A general diffusion of 
the advantages of education being essential to the pre- 
servation of the rights and liberties of the people ; to 
promote this important object, the legislature are author 
rized, and it shall be their duty to require the several 
towns to make suitable provision at their own expense 
for the support and maintenance of public schools." 
Again, in constitutions adopted since the accumulation 
of a school fund, the following or equivalent language is 
employed: "The fund, called the school fund, shall 
remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be 
inviolably appropriated to the support of the common 
schools throughout the state." Or, to quote from the 
recently formed constitution of a comparatively new and 
sparsely populated state : " The legislature shall provide 
by law for the establishment of district schools, which 
shall be free and without charge for tuition to all between 
the ages of four, and twenty years, and no sectarian 
instruction shall be allowed therein. Each town and 
city shall be required to raise by tax annually for the 
support of common schools therein, a sum not less than 
one half the amount received by such town or city 
respectively for school purposes from the income of the 
school fund." These extracts will serve to show that 
the people of the United States attach so much impor- 
tance to the common school system of education, and to 
the practical recognition of the principle, that it is the 
duty of the State to instruct the young ; that they do 
not leave their legislatures to initiate taxes for this pur- 
pose, but provide for them in their primary capacity as 
represented in the constitutions of their several common- 
wealths. Education forms part of the original covenant 
no less than protection to life, liberty, and property. 
The law in the State of Massachusetts, to take an illus- 



CHABACTER OP THE TEACHING. 159 

tration which may enable us more clearly to understand 
the nature of this institution, directs that every city or 
township, as the case may be, shall furnish school accom- 
modation for all the children resident within its bounds, 
the legislature having the power of enforcing obedience 
to this rule. The expenses are defrayed by a tax levied 
on every inhabitant of the district. All matters con- 
nected with these seminaries, — the appointment, removal 
and payment of teachers, the erection of buildings, the 
adoption of regulations, &c, are managed by a committee 
of gentlemen elected generally by the people, having a 
chairman, secretary, and a code of rules. This larger 
committee is divided into sub-committees, for the better 
performance of the work. Each member takes charge of 
a particular school, which he is expected to visit once a 
month ; and all the members are bound to visit the whole 
of the schools in their district at least twice in the course 
of the year. Half-yearly examinations are held by the 
committee for the purpose of advancing such scholars as 
they may find qualified to a higher school. It is usual 
to carry forward in this manner entire classes ; although 
all pupils found deficient are kept back. The first de- 
scription of schools are called "primary;" into them 
children can obtain admittance at four years of age. 
These are all taught by ladies, and it is delightful to 
witness not only how well the little scholars behave, but 
how intelligently they answer difficult questions. The 
" intermediate" schools compose the second class. They 
are intended to prepare for the grammar schools those 
who from sickness, inattention on the part of parents, 
and other causes, have not had an opportunity of attend- 
ing the primary seminaries. At seven years of age, 
pupils, provided their progress has been satisfactory, can 
enter the " grammar" schools and remain there, the boys 
till they are fourteen, the girls till they reach their six- 
teenth year. These schools have a master, an usher, and 
a female assistant. Those who make a creditable 
appearance during their curriculum, are advanced, if 
they choose, to the " high " school, where they are taught 



160 AMERICA AOT) THE AMERICANS. 

all those branches which fit a young man for college.. This 
complete education, it must be borne in mind, is given to 
all without any charge, the expenses being defrayed by the 
peojile taxing themselves voluntarily for that purpose. 
The amount of school funds throughout the Union now 
amounts to no less a sum than 25,669,096 dollars, or 
upwards of £5.000,000 sterling. Massachusetts in 1852 
raised by taxation for the support of the schools 910,216 
dollars, or £180,000 sterling ; during the same year 
2,249,814 dollars were expended for school purposes in 
the State of JSTew York ; and Rhode Island, with a popu- 
lation of only 150,000, spent nearly 100,000 dollars in 
1850 for educating its youth. In 1852 the amount paid 
by the western State of Ohio for schools was 309,472 
dollars, and Indiana has already laid up on behalf of 
public instruction a sum amounting to more than 
1,000,000 sterling. The city of Boston alone appropriates 
.yearly about 330,000 dollars for the common schools, and 
has invested 1,500,000 dollars in school-houses ; so that 
every man, woman, and child in that town contributes 
two dollars per annum at least to prevent the population 
growing up in ignorance. In addition to the amount 
received from the school fund or raised by state tax, the 
towns and school districts almost invariably tax them- 
selves annually for the support of the common schools, 
thus voluntarily adding to the compulsory tax ; and it 
should also be kept in view that the amount paid by 
districts for the erection of new school-houses is not 
generally included in these returns. In 1852, 862,507 
children attended the common schools in the State of 
JNTew York ; 492,679 in the State of Pennsylvania ; in 
the State of Vermont 90,110 ; in the State of New Jersey 
152,040 ; and in Massachusetts 199,183 out of 202,880 
children between the ages of five and fifteen. These 
five States were the first that met my eye when going 
over the Returns ; and greatly to my own surprise, on 
dividing their aggregate population by the number of 
scholars, I found the wonderful result of one in four, or 
one scholar for every four people. I am quite aware 



QUALITY OF THE INSTRUCTION. 161 

that, this proportion is greater than that which obtains 
throughout the Union as a whole, owing principally to 
the absence of an educational system in the south- 
western states ; but a careful investigation of the subject 
will, I think, satisfy the reader, as it certainly has satisfied 
ine, that there are more children in proportion to the 
population attending school in the United States of 
America than in any other country under the sun. As 
to the quality of the instruction given at these seminaries, 
Sir Charles Lyell remarks :* " The High Schools of Bos- 
ton, supported by the State, are now so well managed that 
some of my friends who would have grudged no expense 
to engage for their sons the best instructors, send their 
boys to them as superior to any of the private establish- 
ments supported by the rich at great cost." I find in 
my journal for 1846 an entry regarding the common 
schools of Philadelphia corroborative of this remark, and 
expressed nearly in the same terms. It was my endea- 
vour during my successive journeys and residence in the 
cities to make myself master of this great educational 
system ; and by visiting the various kinds of seminaries, 
by hearing the classes examined, by conversing with the 
teachers, the members of the committees and the general 
public, to arrive at a correct conclusion regarding its 
efiiciency. I have besides, with no small amount of 
labour, gone over a huge pile of documents on this sub- 
ject sent to me from the other side of the Atlantic, and 
collated the information which they contain. They 
elaborately discuss details which it would be unsuitable 
for me to refer to here. So occupied was my mind for 
some days with the lighting, temperature, and ventilation 
of school-rooms, the classification of pupils, the courses of 
study, the regulations of seminaries and the rules of 
committees, that I nearly forgot that such matters, how- 
ever important in themselves, were not likely to prove 
interesting to the general reader. There are only two 
among those points which struck me most forcibly whilst 
perusing these papers which I take the opportunity of 

* " Second Visit to the United States," vol. i., p. 195. 

M 



162 AMERICA VXD THE AMERICANS. 

stating : first, the universally expressed opinion in favour 
of large schools to contain from 400 to 600 or 700 
pupils ; and secondly, the plain and faithful terms in 
which the examinators draw up their reports, and animad- 
vert on what appears to them worthy of censure. jS^o 
stranger visiting these seminaries can, I think, fail to be 
highly gratified with the character of the instruction 
given, the greatest pains being taken to explain the 
tasks, and to make each pupil understand what he 
learns. The main object of the teachers seems to be, 
not so much to fill the minds of the scholars with know- 
ledge as to stimulate their mental powers, to train them 
to habits of reflection, to put them in the way of instruct- 
ing themselves, and to fit them in early life to exercise 
in a rational manner the rights to which as American 
citizens they are entitled by the constitution of their 
country. 

Having entered upon the study of this question 
without prejudice and with an anxious desire to arrive 
at the truth, having personally visited many of the 
schools, and conferred with leading men of all political 
and polemical opinions in the Union as to their working, 
you will not think me obtrusive when I say that I have 
formed an opinion, and that that opinion is altogether 
favourable. And how could it be otherwise when every 
man I met, Whig, Democrat, and Free Soiler, Presby- 
terian, Episcopalian, and Methodist, farmer, politician, 
and merchant, high and low, rich and poor, native and 
emigrant, pointed to the common school system as the 
foundation of the nation's greatness, and assured me 
that, however susceptible of improvement, it was the one 
powerful influence which preserved the territorial inte- 
grity of the greatest federal republic the world has ever 
seen. "A country of whose people," remarks Mr. 
Mackay,* " it may be said that they all read." What 
an honourable character ! Do those who merit it not 
deserve to succeed in founding an empire which shall 



" Western World," vol. iii., p. 228. 






SALAKIES 02 TEACHERS. 163 

rival that of our sea-girt Britain, and be more famous 
in history than imperial Kome. 

However difficult or impossible it may be to establish 
such a system in Great Britain, where the rights of 
existing institutions and the prejudices of education have 
hitherto prevented unanimity of sentiment or action, 
ought we not heartily to enter into the spirit of the 
transatlantic children's song: 

u Then blessings on our Common Schools, 
Wherever they may stand ; 
They are the people's colleges — 
The bulwarks of the land, 

'Tis a happy theme ; like a golden dream its memory seems to be, 
And I'll sing while I have voice or tongue, ' The Common School 
forme.'" 

The employment of female teachers in the American 
schools has been frequently objected to by European 
writers. I do not profess myself competent to argue 
this question, but certainly Miss Bremer is correct when 
she says # that " they are considered by the people as 
more skilful than men in the training of early youth.*' 't 
They receive salaries varying from 300 to 500 dollars 
per annum. I was surprised to find that the masters of 
the Latin and English High Schools in Boston get each 
2400 dollars a year, or only 100 dollars less than the 
Governor of the State. This will show how highly the 
Americans appreciate the importance of the teacher's 
office. The general intelligence of the population cannot 
but be apparent to every one who travels through the 
United States with his eyes and ears open. In six 
months 60,000 copies of Macaulay's History of England 
were sold in the Union, and one firm in one year disposed 
of nearly 3,000,000 of volumes. There are now 694 
public libraries in the country containing 2,201,623 
volumes, and Sir Charles Lyell mentions that he was 
quite astonished at the interest in his geological researches 
displayed by the inhabitants along his line of route. I 
have already referred to the theological seminaries. 

* " Homes of the New World," vol. ii., p. 166. 
+ See also "America as I found it," p. 42, 

m2 



164 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

There are besides 16 schools of Law, 37 of Medicine, and 
no fewer than 119 Universities, with 11,590 matriculated 
students. Even the territory of Minnesota, of which I 
suppose few among us ever heard, has already appro- 
priated two thirty-sixths of the entire lands for public 
free schools, and donated 49,000 acres to endow a college. 
St. Paul, its capital, had last year four seminaries of 
learning. One of the most remarkable institutions in 
America is the Free Academy, a spacious erection situated 
at the corner of Lexington Avenue, and Twenty-third 
street, New York. It has an executive committee of 
six gentlemen, appointed by the General Board of Educa- 
tion, fourteen professors, eight tutors, and at present 435 
scholars, the great majority of whom, though children of 
poor parents, are thus enabled to obtain a college educa- 
tion altogether free of charge. The Academy was 
established in 1848 pursuant to an Act of the State 
Legislature, passed May 7th, 1847, " for the purpose of 
providing higher education for such pupils of the common 
schools as may avail themselves of its advantages." 
Five years constitute the term of study, and no boy is 
admitted unless he passes a strict examination. On 
looking over the entry book I found that a great many 
had been rejected. The principal, Dr. Webster, was 
kind enough to take me over the school, and I was much 
pleased with its arrangements and the proficiency of the 
pupils. Five hundred and fifty-nine boys have already 
been educated at this college — an institution which 
crowns the noble edifice of national education.^ 

* Since writing the above, I have been several times asked the question 
whether a system which worked well in America might not be unsuit- 
able to the requirements and circumstances of Britain. As to this, my 
readers must form their own opinion. They can do so without hearing 
mine, and I should be stepping out of my province were I, whilst 
describing and defending the Common Schools of the United States, to 
obtrude my sentiments in regard to the educational necessities of Eng- 
land. It certainly does not follow that a plan desirable in one country 
must needs be desirable in another ; but the advocates of the sectarian 
and of the voluntary .systems may find arguments enough, without 
attempting to bring into disrepute institutions which reflect the highest 
honour on our transatlantic friends, and have been the salvation of | 
their republic. 



RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OE THE SCHOOLS. 165 

It has frequently been alleged in this country that the 
common schools of America have an irreligious tendency, 
that they have been found in practice to exercise an in- 
fluence prejudicial to Christianity, and that in conse- 
quence a large body of wise and good men on the other 
side of the Atlantic have withdrawn from them their 
countenance and support. To ascertain the truth of 
these assertions was the strongest of the many motives 
which induced me last year to visit the Great Eepublic. 
Sincerely desirous of arriving at the truth with regard 
to statements which had been made with so much con- 
fidence, and propagated far and wide over Scotland, I 
spared no trouble to discover whether or not they had a 
good foundation: I conversed on the subject with at 
least two hundred persons of various opinions on poli- 
tical and polemical questions, commercial men, farmers, 
philanthropists, and ministers of the Grospel ; I started 
the topic at quite a number of parties attended by those 
interested in the great religious movements of the age ; 
I took every opportunity of finding out the sentiments 
not only of casual fellow-passengers, but of individuals 
prominently identified with the leading evangelical 
churches, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Independent, 
and so far from meeting in any part of the Union a 
single person opposed to the common school system of 
education, I did not meet half a dozen who knew that 
this institution had met with opposition except from the 
Roman Catholics. Of these, one was a very intelligent 
medical man in Ohio, who, after listening to my interro- 
gatories, laughed heartily, and remarked, " So you have 
heard of the ' hard heads ;' you are far ahead of the 
people of the United States, very few of whom would 
believe you, were you to tell them that such a party had 
an existence." Another was a farmer, in Connecticut, 
who, when I had with great difficulty made him com- 
prehend the nature of my queries, starting suddenly from 
his seat, exclaimed, " Well, I guess you're right, there 
must be, somewhere or other, folks of this sort, for a 
long time ago, when I was a boy, I heard an old Presby- 



166 AMEBIC A AND THE AMERICANS. 

terian minister say that the public schools were latitudi- 
narian." A third was the Hon. Luther Bradish, a man 
highly respected in the benevolent and religious circles 
of New York, and than whom no person in America 
understands more thoroughly the working of the educa- 
tional system. His unhesitating and emphatic testimony 
was, that the boys educated at the common schools go 
out into life quite as well disposed towards evangelical 
religion as those brought up at the strictest sectarian 
seminaries. He, in common with every other leading 
man with whom I conversed, deprecated in the strongest 
possible terms the establishment of denominational 
schools, as calculated to render the youth narrow-minded 
and exclusive, as opposed to the institutions of the 
country and as preventing that admixture of classes and 
opinions which exercises such a controlling influence in 
favour of law, order, and sound Protestantism. The 
Roman Catholics oppose the national schools, nominally 
because a version of the Bible is read in them of which 
they disapprove, and because so many of the school 
books favour the principles of the Reformation, but 
really because they undermine their Church polity, and 
are the most efficient instruments hitherto tried for 
destroying the power of priestcraft and the papacy. So 
well does the religious public in America know the value 
of the education offered by the various States, that 
Sabbath-school teachers in the large seaport cities ac- 
tually visit the dwellings of the poor and the newly- 
arrived emigrants, and while endeavouring to bring their 
children under spiritual influences, urge, at the same 
time, their being sent in the first instance to the common 
schools. Beading of the Scriptures forms part of the 
exercises in almost all these seminaries ; the school 
books are and must ever be Christian and evangelical 
in a community where such sentiments are in the as- 
cendant ; in some rooms I observed texts painted above 
the windows and on the doors, and in the first primary 
school which I ever visited, the little children chanted 
the Lord's Prayer in a manner as affecting as it was 



BABfcATH SCHOOLS. 167 

beautiful. All interested in the subject united in as- 
suring rue, that the zeal of the different denominations 
had proved quite able to secure the religious instruction 
of youth, and that ample provision had been made to 
secure this end wherever the common school system pre- 
vailed. I visited one Sabbath school in Philadelphia, 
connected with an Episcopalian church, and containing 
no fewer than 850 children, who raise every year £150 
for missions. It was a sight which made the cathedrals 
of Europe appear insignificant ; a more sublime mani- 
festation of Christianity than all the pomp and pageantry 
of Roman festivals. I felt more deeply impressed in 
that assembly than when the Pope was blessing thou- 
sands of prostrate worshippers in the Basilic of St. 
Peter's. I believe there is no country in the world 
where the youth are more carefully taught the precepts 
of Scripture than the United States. Every means is 
used by the Christian sects to provide for the diffusion 
of religious principles amongst the rising generation, 
and, judging from the present, as compared with the 
past state of the nation in this respect, in no country 
have they been more successful. While objecting to all 
oral or written commentary on the Bible in the common 
schools, as calculated to destroy the nationality of the 
plan, and to remove from the influences of education the 
very children who stand most in need of it, they do not 
for a moment lose sight of religious truth as an all-impor- 
tant element in the instruction of the young, but, without 
ostentation or a show of publicity, they have done rather 
more in providing it than many communities which 
claim for themselves, in this respect, a very doubtful 
pre-eminence. The creeds of the people of the United 
States, and of the religious public there, seem to be very 
much the same on this question, and may be summed 
up in the following articles : — 

1st. That a general diffusion of education is essential 
to the success of republican institutions. 

2nd. That it is the duty of the State governments to 
insist on provision being made for it. 



168 AMEEICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

3rd. That all sectarian teaching must be excluded in 
national seminaries. 

4th. That the Christian sects, if consistent and con- 
scientious, should attend to the religious tuition of all 
the members of the community, both young and old. 

I may safely assert that there is not a single nation 
in the world where there exists so much diversity of 
opinion on matters of public interest, on questions of 
government and religion, as the United States ; but in 
regard to the above propositions, the stranger will find 
the most striking and perfect unanimity. Their national 
belief on this head may be expressed by a couplet from 
the pen of the immortal Cowper : — 

" All truth is precious, if not all divine, 
And what dilates tlie powers must needs refine." 

It always makes me smile when I think of the incre- 
dulity and astonishment depicted on the countenances 
of those Americans to whom I told that many good 
people in Scotland devoutly believe in the existence of 
an influential Protestant party in the United States 
opposed to the common schools. It is my impression 
that scarcely one in twenty gave me credit for truthful- 
ness. They do not think it possible that the peculiar 
views of a mere handful of Old School Presbyterians, 
repudiated by an overwhelming majority of their own 
denomination, and nearly unknown to the general public, 
should be so unduly magnified ^as to have any weight 
whatever on this side of the Atlantic. But there is a 
powerful and active party in the Union who are straining 
every nerve to destroy the common schools, and who will 
welcome with pleasure any subsidiary effort on the part 
of conscientious Protestants, — a party well organized, 
disciplined, and anxious to incite division amongst those 
whose only safety lies in their presenting an unbroken 
phalanx to the assailing foe, — a party as unscrupulous 
in assertion as in the means used to accomplish an end, 
with able generals and energetic officers pledged to sub- 
vert, in America, the principles of the Reformation, and 
to enlist the most rising: of nations in the service of the 



EFFECT OF EDUCATION ON CHURCH OF HOME. 169 

Pope of Borne. For several years this party has been 
marshalling its forces and surveying the ground, and 
now that the plan of the campaign has been agreed on, 
and the orders received from the chiefs in the Vatican, 
the first outwork of liberty and Protestantism which 
has been assailed is the common schools. They are the 
bulwarks of the territory to be invaded, the strong and 
strengthening defences of religious freedom, the very 
Thermopylae of the Protestant faith. Think you, my 
readers, that our transatlantic brethren do not know 
when they occupy a vantage ground — when they can 
fight on behalf of their liberties from the munitions of 
rocks, when, in the conflict with the Church of Rome, 
they can wield a weapon — knowledge — which, like the 
head of Medusa, paralyses and prostrates its power ? 
On the contrary, education becomes every year more 
and more their study ; they improve, but do not radically 
alter ; they modify that they may consolidate and render 
impregnable to the foe ; the foundations of the system 
lie deep in the hearts of an enlightened people ; the 
superstructure draws largely on their money, talents, 
and time, but, so far from doubting its usefulness, they 
look on it as the stronghold of their greatness, a fortress 
against which priests and potentates may expend their 
ammunition in vain. The hope of America lies, not in 
legislative enactment, not in penal statutes directed 
against those who plot for the destruction of her civil 
and ecclesiastical freedom, but in the general dissemina- 
tion of knowledge among the people, which guarantees 
the national well-being, confounds the projects of foreign 
schemers, and has been found, in practice, fatal to the 
prosperity of the Church of Rome. 



170 AMEKICA AND 111S AiLEBICASS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

American slavery — My object in discussing the subject — Misappre- 
hensions regarding it current in Great Britain — Importance to the 
advocates of liberty of correct information — Difficulties and pre- 
judices which beset the planters — Dread of a war of races — Depress- 
ing effect of the Institution on the Southern States — Its degrading 
influence on the whites — Society in the south. 

Slavery has, long ago, become a word so hateful to 
British ears, that I feel it no easy matter to call your 
attention to its present development and future in- 
fluence in America, in such a manner as will recommend 
my statements to a candid judgment, and, at the same 
time, leave no impression unfavourable to the great 
cause of universal freedom. It is necessary that we 
enter upon the consideration of this subject with unpre- 
judiced minds, without rancour or thoughtless enthu- 
siasm, desirous of arriving at just conclusions, whatever 
may be our preconceived notions or the prevalent popular 
feeling of the hour. It would be a comparatively simply 
task for me to address my readers on behalf of suffering 
humanity, to excite their sympathies towards the poor 
black man who cuts the sugar-cane in the Mississippian 
swamps, or toils in the rice fields of the Carolinas ; I 
might, by description, by denunciation^ by appeal, fill 
their breasts with the deepest emotion, call into exercise 
the noblest affections of their nature, and secure their 
heartiest applause ; but this is neither my intention nor 
my province; and fortunately the people of England 
now require no eloquence to stimulate their zeal in the 
cause of negro emancipation. The spirit which ani- 
mated Clarkson and Wilberforce was not entombed when 
these moral heroes slept with their fathers, when the 
jubilee song of liberty died away amoug the mountains 
of Jamaica and the tropical jungles of Berbiee ; it lives 
in every free-born British heart, and has an echo 
wherever commerce or Christianity lias carried the 
knowledge of our name. Jfor shall I be expected to 



MISAPPREHENSION IN ENGLAND. 171 

enter the lists in support of the planters, and for the 
sake of opposition defend a system, the evils of which 
must be apparent to us all. It may be chivalrous to fight 
the battles of those, who, having a weak position and 
few champions, endure unmerited obloquy as well as 
just reproach ; but my earnest desire is to avoid parti- 
sanship whilst making a few observations on a theme so 
difficult to handle with that candour and fairness which, 
to reflecting- minds, render the remarks of the traveller 
worthy of attention. 

If there be one subject more than another connected 
with America, concerning which misapprehension exists 
in Great Britain, that subject is negro slavery. It is 
quite common, in the best informed circles, to hear 
statements made which show an utter ignorance of its 
history, working, and political bearings. Forgetting 
that it was an inheritance handed down by the govern- 
ment of England, that it was forced on the colonists by 
the mother country at a time when no one thought of 
armed resistance to imperial laws, we sometimes blame 
' our transatlantic friends for its institution, no less than 
for its continuance ; losing sight of the limits beyond 
which the Congress meeting at "Washington has no 
legislative power, we charge the Republic in general 
with permitting an evil, which, in reality, is beyond the 
interference or control of the central government. How 
many, too, amongst us talk, as if federalism had no 
existence in the Western hemisphere, as if the distinc- 
tion between the ISTorth and the South were a mere 
fiction, as if there were no difficulties in the way of at 
once setting free three and a half millions of uneducated 
men, as if the simple ipse dixit of a planter were, in all 
cases, sufficient to emancipate his negroes ; as if no . 
allowance should be made for persons who could not 
follow the dictates of humanity without throwing their 
families destitute upon society, and giving up to strangers 
the homes where their childhood had been spent. If 
Englishmen wish effectually to promote the cause of 
liberty, they must first make themselves masters of the 



172 AMERICA A5s r D THE AMERICANS. 

case as it stands. Americans cannot be expected to 
listen to advice based on misconception, and to follow 
counsellors led away by prejudice or clamour. It is 
not unusual for Europeans to get fairly worsted in an 
argument on this questio vexata, not on account either 
of the weakness of their position or the deficiency 
of their reasoning powers, but simply because they 
spoke without having a thorough knowledge of the 
matter under discussion, and ventured random asser- 
tions which their adversaries found it easy to refute. 
We maybe right in our conclusion, but if we start from 
false premises, and introduce inapplicable illustrations, 
we shall promote, not our own views, but those of our 
opponents, by entering the arena of controversy. 
Better leave the good cause alone than weaken it by 
bad logic, or statements which cannot be proved strictly 
accurate. 

So much has, of late years, been written in regard to 
the system of African bondage existing in the Southern 
States of the American Union, that it would be a work 
of supererogation on my part were I to do more than 
throw out a few hints which may tend to render our 
opinions more defensible, and our efforts more practically 
useful. 

"Without then entering upon the subject db initio, or 
detaining my readers by any remarks of a historical or 
ethnological nature, I invite their attention to slavery as 
it at present obtains in those independent commonwealths 
connected with the Federal Republic of North America, 
and lying to the south of the fortieth parallel of latitude. 
With the laws which regulate it in these separate States 
the general legislature has nothing whatever to do ; for 
them the local authorities are alone responsible, and 
not to the senators assembling at Washington, but to 
those who meet at Richmond, Columbia, Frankfort, 
Nashville, Baton Rouge, and Montgomery, must we look 
for their alteration or repeal. New York, Pennsylvania, 
Massachusetts, and the other northern republics which 
abolished slavery within their respective jurisdictions, 



POWERS OF THE FEDERAL CONGRESS. 173 

are no more chargeable with its continuance in Louisiana 
or Arkansas, than they are with the social condition of 
the Eussian serf or the bondman of central Africa. The 
indiscriminate and sweeping censures too often pro- 
nounced on this side of the Atlantic against the whole 
body of the American people, besides exasperating those 
who might otherwise assist us in removing the fetters of 
the negro, weaken by their injustice the effect of our 
opinion on those whom we wish to convince. The duties 
of Congress are very different from those of the British 
Parliament ; # nor must we draw too close an analogy 
between the circumstances of the southern planters and 
those of the British proprietors in the West India 
islands prior to the act of emancipation. The latter 
were a mere handful, of little importance, and having 
little influence in comparison with the great body of the 
nation ; the former constitute the majority of the whites, 
and exercise paramount sway in the commonwealths 
wherein they reside. The latter received as a compensa- 
tion for their losses millions of pounds sterling, which a 
rich and generous nation could afford ; the former, of 
course, can expect no such payment, but would have to 
part altogether with a great portion of their possessions, 
whilst the value of the other portion would be very 
doubtful, — dependent, in fact, on events, the course of 
which no living person can foresee. In the swamp 3 of 
Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and the Carolinas, the 
white man could not safely labour ; and who that has 
attended to the state of things of late years in Jamaica 
will guarantee the willingness of the blacks to cultivate 
in these regions the rice plant and the sugar cane ? It is 
easy for us to say to the owmers of such soil, " Emancipate 
your slaves ;" but recollect it is a question, they think, of 
subsistence, rather than of property with them ; and we, 
knowing the frailty of human nature, and conscious of 
our own short-comings in matters where self-interest is 
concerned, should be cautious how we speak of persons 

* Slavery was abolished sometime ago in the district of Columbia, 
governed by the Federal Congress. 



174 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

who from infancy have been taught to regard slavery as 
a blessing, whose whole fortune is bound up in it, and 
who conscientiously, though, as we think, most erro- 
neously, see no alternative but to continue this species 
of servitude, or allow the country to become a desert, 
and their children to be reduced to beggary. Nor is it 
difficult for the planter, when he goes north or travels in 
other countries where there are free negroes, to persuade 
himself that his serfs enjoy many more physical advan- 
tages than individuals of the. same race who are their 
own masters. Observing the latter almost everywhere 
looked down upon, degraded, and poor, outcasts from 
polite society, Ishmaelites against whom all hands are 
raised, he " lays the flattering unction to his soul" that 
the former have been born under better influences, and 
should, instead of murmuring, be grateful for their lot. 
But a more important consideration here presents itself. 
Suppose the blacks at once emancipated ; what will they 
do ? "Where will they go ? What will become of them ? 
How long will they remain at amity with their former 
owners ? "Will they amalgamate with the Anglo-Saxons, v 
the Creoles, and the Spaniards ? Will they quietly work 
for wages in jungles so lately vocal with the driver's 
lash ? These are questions by no means easy of solu- 
tion, but they force themselves on the consideration of 
all who contemplate legislation on the subject, however 
overlooked by us. Providence alone can unravel the 
mysterious web, and evoke light out of the present 
gloom ; but can we wonder if many men interested in 
the system look upon manumission as a prelude to a war 
of races, — a short, decisive, bloody war, which will end 
as such contests have always done, in the triumph of the 
European over the African, and the expulsion of the 
latter from the continent of North America ? This, 
to my mind, appears not an impossible, though a very 
unlikely termination of the present excitement ; and, 
however benevolent men may hope and pray for a dif- 
ferent result, they cannot reasonably slight the opinion 
of so many on the other side of the Atlantic, that unless 



EFFECT ON MATERIAL PROSPERITY. 175 

some "unforeseen event materially alter their relative 
numbers, the whites and blacks will not live long toge- 
ther on a footing of equality, and that the era of eman- 
cipation will also be the era of destruction to the negro. 
On the other hand, we must keep prominently in 
view the depressing effect of slavery on the material 
prosperity of the States where it prevails. In the north 
all is energy, activity, and enterprise ; in the south a pain- 
ful torpor seems to have taken possession of the people. 
Houses ill-built and going to ruin, fences out of repair, 
railroads few in number and badly managed, impassable 
roads, dear travelling, dirty inns, estates producing less 
and less every year, population scarcely increasing, in 
some places even on the decline, all testify to the moral 
blight hanging over the country. Nor will climate alone 
account for this, for the Yankee nourishes in Georgia as 
well as Maine, in New Orleans no less than in Boston ; 
wherever an improvement may be seen in the south, a 
northern man may also be found as its author and 
manager ; and even the planters themselves acknowledge 
that works of internal advantage are not progressing 
with them as in the more nourishing commonwealths 
dependent on free labour. Then compare the dull, 
deserted-looking cities of the slave states with those 
bustling, handsome towns, which are every year rising 
into greater importance in the north. Mobile is only a 
mean and straggling village. Its houses, public build- 
ings, churches, and shops, reminded me of those in the 
remote parts of Norway and Sweden ; its principal square 
resembles an English cowpen, and altogether it looks 
like a place back-going and unprosperous. Charleston 
itself will not for a moment bear to be contrasted with 
third-rate towns on the Ohio, the Hudson, and the 
Lakes. The majority of its houses are still wooden ; at 
night the lamps are so few and the holes in the thorough- 
fares so deep, that a stranger finds it dangerous to walk 
abroad ; there is not a single handsome street ; many 
villages in the free states have better shops ; the public 
buildings are quite unworthy of notice, and I saw only 



176 AMERICA ATsV THE AMERICANS. 

one stone church* Governor Morris, in the [Federal 
Convention at the close of the Eevolutionary War, said, 
that " slavery was a nefarious institution — the curse of 
heaven on the States where it prevailed." " Compare the 
free regions of the middle States," he continued, " where 
a rich and noble cultivation marks the prosperity and 
happiness of the people, with the misery and poverty 
which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia and 
Maryland, and the other states having slaves. Travel 
through the whole continent, and you behold the prospect 
continually, varying with the appearance and disappear- 
ance of slavery." # If -these remarks were true at the 
close of the last century, they are much more true at 
the present day, the free states having long ago far 
distanced those in the south in everything that con- 
stitutes material prosperity. They may have the same 
climate and a similar soilTthey may be separated only by 
a belt of forest, a narrow river, or a fancied line ; but 
the first flourish in a degree unexampled in the history 
of nations, while the last with difiiculty can hold good 
their own ! North Carolina, indeed, may be said to be 
positively retrograding ; and Maryland compared with 
Pennsylvania, is an unreclaimed wilderness. Every ten 
years the census returns show most conclusively the 
fatal effects of slavery on the industrial progress of those 
provinces where it prevails. Men, yet alive, remember 
Ohio a mere territory, inhabited by a few enterprising 
settlers fond of adventure and a life in the woods. At 
that time Virginia was the acknowledged head of the 
Union ; but now times are so far changed that the new 
free state in the west contains 550,000 more inhabitants 
thai the " Old Dominion," once pre-eminent in point 
both of numbers and of wealth. We may follow out 
this course of observation, and invariably find the same 
result. Trace the Ohio from Pittsburg to its junction 
with the parent stream ; — on the right bank are manu- 
factories, villages, vineyards, farms, and cities, increasing 
wonderfully in size ; on the left bank stand the ancient 
* Hildreth's " History of tlie United States," vol. iii., p. 511. 



INFLUENCE Off THE WHITES. 177 

denizens of the forest, relieved only by plots of tobacco 
ground or small plantations of Indian corn. The free 
states are making gigantic strides towards wealth, popu- 
lation, and power ; the slave states are struggling with 
an incubus which precludes advancement, and threatens 
revolution. On the one hand, we behold thriving towns, 
handsome churches, well-filled schools, intelligent ener- 
getic men and women, the steam-engine, the workshop, 
and the telegraph ; on the other, one of the plagues of 
Egypt seems to have visited the settlements, and filled 
them with desolation and ruin. The very literature of 
Europe and the north is scarce on the blighted side of 
this line of demarcation. The planters discourage a 
multitude of books, lest some of them should contain 
matter inimical to their domestic institutions, and sub- 
versive of the principles which they have sworn to 
defend. 

If such be the effect of slavery on industry and social 
progress, it exercises an influence not a whit less perni- 
cious on the men themselves. If it degrades the black 
man, far more does it degrade and brutalize the white, 
rendering him haughty, indolent, and dependent, over- 
bearing in his deportment, and altogether devoid of that 
moral energy which distinguishes the S"ew Englander, 
and is founding a mighty nation in the north-west. New 
Orleans, Mobile, indeed all the places of consequence in 
the south, contain an unusual number of cafes, bar- 
rooms, drinking- shops, pistol-galleries, low theatres, 
bowling-alleys, and such like resorts, which are filled all 
day long with a set of loafing, good-for-nothing, dis- 
sipated fellows, generally half intoxicated, who use in 
every sentence oaths too horrible to repeat, and scoff at 
morality and religion. The stranger coming from the 
north will be surprised with the rowdyism, swearing, 
and drunkenness prevalent in every village under the 
influence of slavery. The hotels, steamers, stages, rail- 
road cars, and coffee-houses, swarm with specimens of 
humanity so sunk in the social scale, so utterly lost to 
every good influence, so ignorant, brutish, and depraved, 



178 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

that, notwithstanding their lofty pretensions and white 
skins, you put them down at once as both mentally and 
morally inferior to the negroes. Even amongst well- 
living men the general profanity and laxity of principle 
strikes an observant traveller ; while the frequent mur- 
ders, drunken quarrels, outrages on persons and pro- 
perty, the spectacle of legislative halls turned into 
pugilistic arenas, of the people by their free votes refusing 
to adopt an educational system, of states repudiating 
just debts, the disregard of social ties and the too 
common licentiousness of manners, — all bear witness to 
the virulence of that moral gangrene which is eating 
into the very vitals of the commonwealths. " What I 
cannot shut my eyes to, 5 ' says Lord Carlisle,^ " is that 
while slavery continues it must operate with terrible 
reaction on the dominant class, to blunt the moral sense, 
to sap domestic virtue, to degrade independent industry, 
to check the onward march of enterprise, to sow the 
seeds of suspicion, alarm, and vengeance, in both internal 
and external intercourse, to distract the national coun- 
cils, to threaten the permanence of the Union, and to 
leave a brand, a byeword, and a jest upon the name of 
freedom." How comes it to pass that the miscreants 
who infest the lower Mississippi, the gamblers and 
thieves who travel in the steamers on the Eed Eiver 
and the Alabama, the unpunished criminals who lurk for 
their prey in Texas and Arkansas, do not frequent the 
free states of the north ? "Why is human life so much 
less regarded in Louisiana than in Ohio ? Why can 
desperadoes defy the law in Tennessee, while in Michigan 
they dare not follow their vocation ? Why is the bowie- 
knife more worn in Mobile than in Buffalo ? Why are 
the churches and schoolhouses so empty, and the jails so 
full between the thirty-eighth degree of latitude and the 
Gulf of Mexico ? Why, unless in the words of Miss 
Bremer, t "the natural sense of right and the pure glance 
of youth are falsified by the institution of slavery." Ah 

* Lecture at Leeds, 
t "Homes of the New World," vol. ii., p. 233. 



THE PLA1STTEES. 179 

yes, many- southern mothers know well that its influence 
acts like a poison in the minds of their children, render- 
ing them quick to resent, obstinate and intractable, 
violent in temper, and insolent in speech. It educates a 
nation of petty tyrants, regardless of private decency, 
and having no sympathy with the sufferings of their 
fellow-men. 

But here it is necessary to explain that the persons 
whom one meets on the street, on board steamers, and 
in bar-rooms, and whose conduct so often leads strangers 
to believe the worst of manners in the south, must not 
be taken as fair specimens of white society in the re- 
gions where they congregate. Many travellers have 
been led to form erroneous ideas of the planters by 
judging of them entirely from the men who frequent 
public places, unaware of the fact that the wealthier and 
more refined inhabitants do not throng the thoroughfares, 
but lead a quiet inactive life in their country houses, 
removed from the bustle and turmoil of hotels and rail- 
roads. The great body of landed proprietors differ as 
much from the rough repulsive characters floating along 
the stream of travel, as does the polished merchant of 
Boston from the backwoodsman of St. Paul. You see 
Southerners in a very disadvantageous light, and through 
a very distorted medium in the cotton boats of the 
Alabama, and on the levees of Vicksburg and Baton 
Eouge. The better class of white men in these states 
are to be seen only on their plantations ; and in order 
to form any opinion in regard to them, the European 
must leave the highways and spend his time in their re- 
tired but comfortable homes. 



k 2 



180 AMEKICA AND THE AMEEICANS. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

Subject continued — Condition of the slaves as domestic servants, on the 
cotton fields, and on the sugar plantations — Arbitrary powers given 
to masters — Cruelties and crimes practised by some of them — 
Feelings of the Negroes — The runaways — Denial of education to the 
slaves — Whipping posts — Internal slave-trade — Separation of families 
— Slave traders and kidnappers — Laws against emancipation — 
Erroneous notions in Europe in this respect — Slaveholders by com- 
pulsion — Blinding force of education and habit in relation to the 
institution — Can a slave-holder, under any circumstances, be a 
Christian ? 

"We have glanced, in the last chapter, at the circum- 
stances of the master • let us now briefly consider the 
lot of the slave. That there are many men far too 
good and too wise to avail themselves of the unjust 
power with which law invests them ; that the majority * 
indeed exercise their authority in a lenient and merciful 
manner, that hundreds of owners feel deeply for the 
position of their bondmen, and to alleviate their sufferings 

CONSTANTLY AND HABITUALLY YIOLATE EXPBESS EN- 
ACTMENTS, that manliness, kindness of heart, and gene- 
rosity in numerous instances, render the terrors of the 
system more nominal than, real, that thousands of free 
labourers in other countries enjoy far fewer of the good 
things of this life than most Africans in the southern 
States ; that the treatment of the negroes is, generally 
speaking, humane, may be proven, it appears to me, by 
indubitable testimony — by the statistics of their re- 
markable increase, and. by the circumstance of their 
well-known longevity:, Those employed as domestic 
servants in nine cases out of ten live well, enjoy luxu- * 
ries unknown to the English peasant, and die at a good 
old age. Attached to their proprietors, from their in- 
fancy brought up in his household, allowed many little 
indulgences, and regarded in certain respects as mem- 
bers of the family ; individuals amongst them have over 
and over again refused to receive their freedom when it 



CONDITION OF THE SLAVES^ 181 

was within their reach. It is pre-eniinently so in Vir- 
ginia, Maryland, and Kentucky ; # where few of the 
slaves, comparatively speaking, are employed in the cul- 
tivation of the soil ; and even in other districts, where 
they work almost exclusively in the fields, it would be 
unfair to represent their owners as with few exceptions, 
cruel and exacting. But what shall we, what ca^ we, 
say in favour of the condition of the negroes on many 
of the large cotton plantations ; where, under the 
fierce rays of an almost tropical sun, poorly clad, and as 
poorly fed, they are compelled to work like oxen, and 
are driven in gangs like felons ? It makes me shudder 
to think of the severe toil and the heartless oppression 
which these wretched beings undergo to support a white 
aristocracy, and supply with the raw material the 
manufactories of Manchester. Whatever may be said 
regarding the treatment of the slaves in other branches 
of industry, they are most brutally used in the culture of 
cotton. Then, again, in the sugar houses, it is said, I 
believe with justice, that the present mode of grinding 
and boiling necessitates the overworking of the negroes 
to such a degree, that they die in eight or ten years, 
and that were it not for immigration, they would soon 
become extinct. From personal observation I can testify 
that it is worse than the severest labour in European 
prison-houses, and renders our fellow-creatures more 
like monkeys than men. May those of my fellow- 
countrymen, who have keen and sensitive feelings, never 
be doomed to see the worn out, haggard, emaciated, 
tottering, bent and deformed African, cutting down the 
sugar-cane, or bearing it to the mill. The sight would 
unnerve many of them, though they heard not, as I 

We learned at Washington that it is by no means rare for the 
well-fed and clothed bondman, who is there in attendance on his 
southern master, to despise the coloured freeman, who is poorly clothed 
and fed in comparison to him, and leads a laborious life. The pam- 
pered valet, however, is no true specimen of what the negro on the 
tobacco, cotton, or rice plantation is, even although we leave out of the 
comparison all that refers to morality and volition. — " America as I 
found it." p. 225. 



182 AMEBIC A AND THE AMERICANS. 

have done, the clank of the runaway's heavy chains, or 
the sharp quick sound of the driver's lash. 

Nor must we forget, whilst alluding to these hard- 
ships, the shameful power given in most of the States, 
to the master, to punish and chastise at pleasure. Sel- 
dom indeed is he called to account for any atrocity of 
this kind, unless the sufferer die during its infliction, 
and in some districts positive statutes protect him in the 
exercise of this monstrous authority^ Judge Stroud 
not only states this in so many words, but adds, " the 
master may with entire impunity, in at least two States, 
use the horse- whip and cow- skin as instruments for 
beating his slave, he may load him with irons, or subject 
him to perpetual imprisonment ; and for cruelly scald- 
ing, wilfully cutting out the tongue, putting out an eye, 
or any other dismemberment, if proved, in South Caro- 
lina, a fine of one hundred pounds currency only is 
incurred." # I am afraid that there are not a few men, 
especially in the south-west, and by the banks of that 
dreadful Bed Elver, who answer to the description of 
Legree, and whose fists have in very deed and truth, 
been "calloused with knocking down niggers. "t Be 
this as it may, he would be a bold man who ventured 
to deny that planters in America do now and then 
murder their negroes, that black testimony is not ad- 
mitted in courts of justice, however dreadful the out- 
rage perpetrated, and that even where whites have 
witnessed the crime, once and again the manslayer 
has been acquitted by a jury of his fellows. JSTow, to 
my mind, it matters not whether such cases are frequent 
or the reverse, whether the majority of masters conduct 
themselves humanely, or use with brutality the methods 
of torture within their reach — the system which permits 
such atrocities, the laws which shield the guilty from 
the punishment due to his sins, will not for a moment 
bear justification, and must sooner or later be swept 
away in the providence of God. f It has been said that 

* Stroud's " Sketch * p. 43. 
+ " Uncle Tom's Cabin," chap. xlv. 



LOTE OF LIBERTY. 18 



o 



the great proportion of the negroes are contented and 
happy. But people differ noFalitlie in what consti- 
tutes happiness. Sir Thomas Powell Buxton used to 
relate a conversation which took place at his own table 
in connexion with this question, which much amused 
him. A gentleman who had been resident in the 
Mauritius, one day dining with him, laboured to set 
him right as to the condition of the slaves. He finished 
by appealing to his wife, — " Now, my dear, you saw Mr. 

J? 's slaves, do tell Mr. Buxton how happy they 

looked." " Well, yes," innocently replied the lady, 
" they were very happy, I'm sure — only I used to think 
it so odd to see the black cooks chained to the fire- 
place."* That many poor Africans have become so de- 
graded as not to realize the nature of their position, or 
to feel that 

* ' Freedom lias a thousand charms to show 
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know," 

is very true ; but it is equally true that, in the great 
majority of instances where liberty has been offered 
them as the reward of certain labour, they have worked 
with an energy unknown to hopeless bondmen, and that 
not one in twenty who have escaped, has, after years of 
poverty and unremitted toil, regretted that he gained 
his liberty. Ah, no ! the love of it is far too deeply- 
seated in the human breast to be quenched, except in 
rare instances, even by ignorance and hereditary oppres- 
sion. People tell me the slaves are contented — I answer, 
then, what kind of creatures are "negro dogs," packs 
of which are advertised in the southern newspapers for 
hunting and catching runaways ? These notices, we 
need not attempt to conceal it, tell a dreadful tale, a 
tale of poor old scarred and tortured Africans flying 
from the whip of the driver to lie out in swamps which 
the serpent shares with the alligator, where the rattle- 
snake dwells with the toad. Half mud, half water, 
jungles of rank, tangled grass, or thickets interwoven with 

* "Life," by Charles Buxton, Esq., p. 184. 



184 AMERICA AND THE AMEBIC ANS. 

the poisonous vine, their air impregnated with the most 
deadly miasma, their moss and morasses scarcely afford- 
ing standing-room for his torn and bleeding feet, they 
are, nevertheless, the only strongholds to which the 
black man, driven to distraction, can in his despair and 
agony flee ; and even there he is not safe, for without he 
hears the bay of the bloodhounds, and within starvation, 
like some frightful spectre, rustles among the sedges, 
and stalks across the treacherous fen. 

Before leaving this, the gloomy side of the question, 
I must glance at one or two evils connected with the 
system, which require serious consideration. 

And, first, it is unlawful in most of the States to 
educate the slaves. No doubt these statutes are con- 
stantly evaded, and southerners will tell you that they 
were passed rather to prevent the abolitionists inciting the 
negroes to rebellion than to interfere with the praise- 
worthy exertions of the planters themselves to elevate 
the condition of their bondmen. This, I believe to be, 
to a certain extent, true ; for every one knows that there 
are many enlightened and worthy men in Georgia and 
the Carolinas, and that the legislators, in numerous re- 
spects, are better than their enactments, too humane to 
act up to the letter of a code, which, like that of Draco, 
might have been written in characters of blood ; but, 
admitting at once the cause and the exceptions, we still 
have the appalling reality before us, that thousands of men 
and women in America are doomed to hopeless ignorance 
on account of the colour of their skin. I have listened 
with astonishment to Christians defending a state of 
things so passing strange, and refusing to admit the 
obligation of teaching all human beings without distinc- 
tion, at least to read the word of God. The fact is, 
they cannot help regarding universal education as a step 
towards manumission, the ghost of which so frightens 
them as to blunt their perception of duty, and weaken 
their reasoning powers. 

Then, I blush to mention it, there exist, in some 
cities of the south, institutions belonging to the munici- 



THE LN'TEBXAL SLAVE-TEADE. 185 

palities, for flogging slaves, and on hundreds of estates 
every year young women and old men are stripped 
naked, tied to stakes on the ground, and whipped in the 
presence of their fellows, ay, and strangers can, in New 
Orleans, go in and witness these indecent and inhuman 
exhibitions, as freely as to a reading-room or a playhouse. 
I speak with reluctance of the internal slave-trade, of 
the traffic going on between Virginia, Kentucky, and ^ 
the breeding-states on the one hand, and, on the other, 
the more recently-settled territories in the south. The 
annexation of Arkansas, and the union with Texas, have 
given an impulse to the rearing of negroes which ren- 
ders the prospects of emancipation more distant than 
ever. The most frequent sign in some towns is, 
"Slaves sold here." I have seen them arranged in 
rows like bottles of blacking, or vases in the corridor of 
a museum. My readers have heard too often of the slave 
auctions to require more than a reference to them here. 
To be present at one of them will prove more convincing 
than whole volumes of abolitionist argument. The 
most dreadful circumstance connected with them is the 
habitual separation of families. ' I use these terms ad- 
visedly, for, although it is very well known that maky 
who avail themselves of such marts, will neither buy nor 
sell husbands away from their wives, or parents from 
their children, it is just as well known that if all acted 
on this principle the business could not be conducted, 
that the majority attach no more importance to it than 
we do to the disposal of a litter of puppies, and that ad- 
vertisements appear every day in the southern papers ' 
which place the question beyond the possibility of a 
doubt. That kind planters have, time and again, re- 
tained negroes whom they could scarcely feed rather 
than break up the domestic circle ; that the humane 
frequently bid at the auctions solely out of motives of 
benevolence every one admits, but to say that the sepa- 
ration of families is an exception to the rule, is to make 
an assertion which every trader in the country would 
laugh to scorn. 



186 AMERICA AKB THE AMERICANS. 

I have sometimes been surprised at the inconsistency 

of the more respectable planters and their friends in 

regard to this class of men, the Tom Lokers and Theo- 

philus Ireemans, 

" Who drive a loathsome traffic ; guage and span, 
And buy the muscles and the bones of man." 

They denounce their conduct and practices, refuse to 
receive them into society, take credit to themselves for 
keeping them at arm's length, and yet, when occasion 
requires it, avail themselves of the facilities which their 
pens and auction-rooms supply. I heard a very intel- 
ligent Episcopalian clergyman refer with exultation to 
the fact of these negro merchants being looked down 
upon, as if it were any mark of right feeling or prin- 
ciple to denounce a man for the business he conducts, 
whilst at the same time you frequent his store. 

One more circumstance remains to be noticed before 
passing on to another part of the subject, viz., that 
every year a number of free blacks are kidnapped and 
hurried off to work in bondage beyond the Red River 
and the Colorado. Occasionally a victim of this kind 
escapes, and, to do the southerners justice, kidnappers 
have, in a few instances, been punished; but -the great 
majority of the unfortunates thus forcibly abducted, 
being unable to write, and removed from all means of 
communication with their friends, pine away and die in 
hopeless slavery. 

Having thus fearlessly exposed the evils of the 
system, I feel myself more at liberty as fearlessly to 
plead for the exercise of Christian forbearance towards 
many in the south, who, as I shall presently show you, 
are slaveholders by compulsion rather than by desire, 
who in a manner are forced by the laws of the various 
commonwealths to stand in the relation of owners to 
their fellow-men, and who are often spoken of in this 
country with a severity as injudicious as it is undeserved. 
There is a class of people in philanthropic Britain who 
carry on a kind of Quixotic crusade against everything 
which savours of injustice. "Without taking the trouble 



LAWS AGAINST MANUMISSION. 187 

to study a subject in all its bearings, they feel a most 
praiseworthy horror at narrations sometimes fabulous, 
and condemn with emphasis and indignation before 
hearing evidence and weighing testimony. Such well- 
meaning folks do sometimes more harm than good, and 
no cause have they more effectually injured than the 
cause of the suffering negro. Of the thousands amongst 
us who express themselves in language so strong and 
denunciatory against the whole race of planters, and 
who maintain that under all possible circumstances, 
slaveholding is a heinous sin, how many know that a 
proprietor in most of the southern states can no more 
free his bondmen by an act of his own, than he can 
change the colour of their skin ? The law of Georgia 
provides that " each and every slave or slaves in whose 
behalf a will or testament of manumission shall have 
been made shall be liable to be arrested by warrant, and 
being thereof convicted, (observe that the good deed of 
the master is treated as a transgression on the part of 
the slave,) shall be liable to be sold as a slave or slaves 
by public outcry, for the benefit of the commonwealth." # 
The General Assembly! of North Carolina has enacted 
that all slaves emancipated unlawfully are to be com- 
mitted to the county jail, and at the next court held 
for that county are to be sold to the highest bidder. In 
Mississippi not only must the legislature sanction every 
individual case of manumission, but it must be proven 
that the slave has performed some signally meritorious 
action on behalf either of his master or of the state. It 
is therefore not so much the fault as the misfortune of 
many planters that they hold slaves, and to those 
amongst them who deplore the institution, whose moral 
worth and religious zeal are apparent to all, who devote 
time and money to the instruction of their negroes, and 
who neither treat nor consider them as slaves, shall we 
refuse our sympathy, dare we refuse the communion of 
our churches ? I go a step further, and being in my 

* " Stroud's Sketch," p. 149. 
+ i. e. The Senate and House of Representatives. 



188 AMERICA AXD THE AMERICANS. 

conscience persuaded that some good men have been so 
blinded by the prejudices of education, of association, 
and of habit, as not to see the force of the arguments 
against slavery, I would treat these men as brethren 
and fellow- Christians, no matter how mistaken on 
this particular theme. I know very well that this 
is an unpopular doctrine on this side of the At- 
lantic, but whatever may be thought of my sentiments, 
surely no fault will be found with those of Mrs. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, and she in the thirteenth chapter of the 
" Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," writes : " In some slave 
states it seems as if there were very little that the 
benevolent owner could do which should permanently 
benefit his slave, unless he should seek to alter the 
laws." Are we then at liberty to vituperate and to ex- 
communicate those who, to use the expressive words of 
Mr. Mackay, # " have been placed in so painful, so per- 
plexing, so frightful a position," and who, instead of 
allowing their slaves to be sold to other and more cruel 
masters, are pursuing the very course pointed out by 
the eminent lady just named. On this subject the 
General Assembly of the New School Presbyterian 
Church declared in 1846 as follows : — " In view of all 
the embarrassments and obstacles in the way of emanci- 
pation interposed by the statutes of the slaveholding 
States, and by the social influence affecting the views 
and conduct of those involved in it, we cannot pronounce 
a judgment of general and promiscuous condemnation, 
implying that destitution of Christian principle and 
feeling which should exclude from the table of the Lord 
all who stand in the legal relation of masters to slaves, 
or justify us in withholding our ecclesiastical and 
Christian fellowship from them." This carefully worded 
deliverance may not please the ultras of either party ; 
to my mind it is excellent logic and good common- 
sense. " Many southern women," says Mrs. Stowef 
(and the testimony is not a whit less true of many 

* "AVestern World," vol. ii., p. 141. 

t " Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," chap. iii. 



DIFFICULTIES OF GENEROUS PLANTERS. 189 

southern men)— " many southern women, surrounded by- 
circumstances over which they can have no control, per- 
plexed by domestic cares, loaded down by duties and 
responsibilities which wear upon the very springs of 
life, still go on bravely and patiently from day to day, 
doing all they can to alleviate what they cannot prevent, 
and, as far as the sphere of their own immediate power 
extends, rescuing those who are dependent upon them 
from the evils of the system." Why, so far from slave- 
holding being in all cases a malum per se, were the re- 
ligious proprietors iisr those Stateswhich do not allow 
emancipation to refuse any longer to hold their negroes, 
the country would become a Sodom, without one re- 
deeming influence to save it from the judgments of 
heaven. If these things be true — and they have not 
been hazarded without most careful investigation — 
candid men amongst us will see how very dangerous it 
is to speak ex cathedra before mastering the facts of the 
case, and how utterly untenable is the position that a 
slave-holder under no possible circumstances can be a 
Christian. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Subject continued — Intemperance and violence displayed by the aboli- 
tion Societies in the north — Their political mistakes, and assaults on 
Christianity — Short-sighted policy of Southern legislation — Signs of 
progress — Change of feeling among the better class of planters — In- 
fluence of Home Missionary Societies, and Nev/ England school- 
teachers in sapping the foundations of slavery — Probable effect of the 
contest on the prospects of the Union — the Missouri compromise, and 
the Fugitive Slave-law — Renewal of the struggle — Slavery doomed. 

Haying thus for expressed myself plainly, I shall not I 
shrink from adding that the course pursued by the 
party technically styled Abolitionists^ has been most 
intemperate and unwise, that a great deal of the violence 
displayed on this question at the south is owing to the 
fanatical doings at the north, and that dictation, menace, 

* Or ultra-abolitionists, for there are many excellent men usually so 
called to whom the following remarks by no means apply. 



190 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

and abuse only delay the day of freedom for the suffering 
^African. I did not meet above a dozen or twenty 
persons in America who entertained a different opinion 
from that now expressed, and negroes themselves have 
complained to me of the extraordinary manner in which 
so many of their friends carried on the agitation. The 
great majority of religious people in the free States are 
of course opposed to slavery, but a mere handful of 
them retain their connexion with a party which employs, 
denunciation instead of argument, whose measures only 
serve to exasperate the planters, and who in many of 
their gatherings not only admit,- but loudly cheer the 
bitterest attacks on Christianity. In September last 
year, a meeting of this extreme section was held in New 
York, and addressed by Mr. Lloyd Garrison and other 
persons, including several women, in terms which I read 
at the time with a feeling of shame bordering on incre- 
dulity, and many of which I would not, for the sake of 
public decency, commit to paper. Blasphemy would 
be a mild word by which to characterize some of the 
sentiments applauded, and any reasonable person who 
read the speeches without the newspaper heading, might 
have supposed that their object was to further the cause 
of infidelity, not of negro emancipation. The same 
thing exactly occurred at the annual May gathering of 
this extreme section in 1846, and, as I made it a point 
to peruse the report of all .such assemblies held through- 
out the country, and for years have been in the habit of 
reading the American newspapers, I feel not the smallest 
hesitation in saying that the tactics and language of the 
so-called Abolitionists repel men of religious principle 
and ordinary discretion. Hawthorne* speaks of them 
as " brandishing their one idea like an iron flail. "f And 

* " Mosses from an Old Manse," p. 167. 
f The felicity of this expression as applied to the ultra-abolitionists 
of America, and their decreasing sympathisers in Great Britain, has 
been amusingly illustrated by their criticisms on my opinions, after their 
delivery on a former occasion. I was accused of favouring slavery, of 
writing a general vindication of slave-holders, of being lenient to the 
priestly champions of this deplorable institution, of magnifying the 



THE ULTRA ABOLITIONISTS. 191 

certainly they* seem on many occasions to make law, 
order, and revelation bend to their furor on behalf of 
immediate emancipation. So far from it being wonderful 
that a movement in itself so benevolent does not com- 
mand the support of the Christian Church, it is wonderful 
that any men who revere their Bible can listen to the 
Parkers and the Garrisons by whom it has hitherto 
been led. 

"I must confess," remarks Mr. Buxton,*" "that 
Abolitionism in the United States appears to me to be 
anything but genuine and honest." This expresses pre- 
cisely the feeling o'i most Englishmen after they have 
observed for a month or two the proceedings of the part}', 
and found out that their result, — viz., the closing of the 
South against anti-slavery doctrines, and the neutrality 
professed by the great body of the people at the north. 
Their political actions have likewise been a series of 
mistakes.. By supporting Polk for the Presidential 
chair, i.e., by starting a candidate of their own who pre- 
vented the election of Henry Clay, they paved the way 
for the annexation of Texas and the vast increase of 
slave territory, and men in whose veracity I could rely, 
— men unconnected with either Whigs or Democrats, — 

difficulties in the way of its fall, and of other crimes too dreadful in 
seriousness to mention. My real oifence was in disparaging the efforts 
of societies in the Northern States, whose proceedings and the declara- 
tions of whose leaders have caused the secession from them of thousands 
who might now have been waging a successful campaign against the 
hateful system of human bondage The men of " one idea" tolerate no 
difference of opinion even on minor points, and since some leading mem- 
bers of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society have refused to act in 
conjunction with the American agitators, they have become more illiberal 
and abusive than ever. According to some people the world must be 
retrograding, when it does not advance precisely in the way chosen by 
them ; but philanthropists as well as monarch s have tried a despotic 
course before now in vain. An enlightened public may in times of ex- 
citement overstep the boundaries of prudence, and say and do harsh 
things, but in the end calm reflection has in this country always pre- 
vailed. As long as men value the right of private judgment they will 
not for any length of time permit themselves to be dragged at the 
chariot wheels of hot-headed declaimers, or wield weapons which, in 
their calmer moments, they feel to be unsafe. 

* " Adventures in Mexico and the Eocky Mountains," p. 318. 



192 AMERICA. AND THE AMERICANS. 

told me last year that the Free Soilers are more corrupt 
than either, frequently selling their influence to the 
highest bidder. But apart from the mode in which 
they conduct the warfare, it may reasonably be doubted 
whether immediate emancipation is practicable. Mr. 
Mackay, an able opponent of negro slavery, says it is 
" a chimera,"* and I sometimes think many who loudly 
call for it would do well to ponder the words of Sir 
Edward Bulwer Lytton :f " If the breast be uneducated, 
the gift may curse the giver ; and he who passes at once 
from the slave to the freeman may pass as rapidly from 
the freeman to the ruffian." At all events, whether 
or not this view of the matter be correct, it is at least 
deserving of respectful consideration, and men who urge 
it while they do not conceal their dislike of African 
bondage, are much more likely to promote the good 
cause than societies who welcome Lucy Stone and 
applaud the diatribes of William Lloyd Garrison. 

But whilst condemning at once the precipitancy and | 
the intemperance of the abolitionists, we must not shut 
our eyes to the want of judgment and foresight, not to 
say the guilt of those who, with the privilege of legisla- 
tion committed to them, have taken no step whatever 
towards abolishing a system of dire injustice. The 
charge against the south is, that for nearly a century 
nothing has been done to remove a national reproach, 
and to settle a question which every year becomes more 
and more difficult of solution. The planters are supreme 
rulers ; if they cannot individually emancipate their 
negroes, they can collectively alter the laws which retain 
them in perpetual bondage ; and until some move be 
made in this direction, we cannot help feeling distrust 
in their protestations of anxiety to be rid of the evil. 
jN~o plea of violence on the part of the north, or of ob- 
stacles at home, will avail them, as long as, instead of 
relaxing, they increase the severity of their slave code 



"Western World," vol. ii., p. 108. 
f " Rienzi," chap. x. 



' 



SLAVERY TOTTERING. 193 

and strive to perpetuate an institution condemned by 
the universal voice of mankind. 

Judging from the surface of things, looking only on 
their external aspect, one might suppose that no pro- 
gress was making on this subject in any of the southern 
States ; but a more intimate acquaintance with the 
country will enable the stranger to observe signs of a 
change for the better, which escape the notice of the 
mere passer-by. If he sojourn for any time in Ken- 
tucky he will learn that the system of slavery is losing 
hold, that several practical farmers of enterprise have 
introduced free labour, and proved incontestably its ad- 
vantage in such a climate over that of bondmen ; that 
on several plantations the negroes have been set free, 
this being permitted by the law of the State, provided 
the proprietor send them out of its jurisdiction ; that, in 
short, the people are fast finding out that, in order to 
prosper like their neighbours in Illinois and Ohio, they 
must remove the incubus which bears them down in the 
race of social improvement. The same may be said of 
both Maryland and Virginia, in a corner of which latter 
State a New England colony has strikingly demon- 
strated the superiority of free labour ; and who that 
knows anything of Georgia is not aware of the silent 
but sure progress of anti- slavery views on the banks 
of the Ockmulgee and the Savannah ? To teach the 
slaves habits of industry and application, to assist them 
in acquiring a competence, to give them a suitable edu- 
cation, and instruct them in the great' doctrines of our 
most holy faith, is the earnest endeavour of many who 
make no loud professions, and yet do more to aid a 
noble cause than a whole host of northern declaimers. 
The legislation of that State gives one a very erro- 
neous idea of its practice ; and if ever a great move- 
ment on behalf of manumission take place in the terri- 
tories more immediately interested in the question, it 
will in all human probability originate in the plantations 
of Georgia. Then, again, the influence of New England 

o 



194 AMEBIC A AKD THE AMEBIC ANS. 

men and women scattered over the slave states is be- 
ginning to tell. As merchants and school-teachers, 
prudently and without ostentation, they act as leaven to 
the mass of society, circulating widely, in a manner which 
attracts little attention, opinions directly at variance 
with African slavery. I observed a marked change in 
the attitude assumed by southerners on this subject in 
seven years. Few of them now refuse to discuss it with 
persons disposed to be reasonable ; it is no longer 
tabooed either by newspaper editors or legislators ; there 
are not many districts where proprietors in favour of 
gradual emancipation may not be found ; the instruction 
of the negroes goes on, in an underhand way of course, 
but still with increasing diligence ; and some speak of 
the institution as a necessary evil who formerly loudly 
proclaimed it a national blessing. The traveller will 
also be surprised to hear a great deal about the gracious 
purposes of God in permitting slavery to continue for a 
time in America, in order that the blacks may be civi- 
lized, taught agricultural and commercial arts, and con- 
verted to the Christian religion, before going over en 
masse to cultivate and evangelize Africa. It is a strik- 
ing sign of the times when you hear this statement 
made by men who, ten years ago, would have treated it 
with ridicule and scorn. As for the arguments from 
the Bible, brought forward by advocates of the system, 
I should like to know how many really believe them. 
Yv'ere some unlooked-for convulsion to bring down the 
price of cotton, the reverend gentlemen who have so 
diligently laboured to persuade mankind of their co- 
gency would soon find out new methods of interpre- 
tation. 

But notwithstanding all that has been said to the 
contrary, especially by the extreme abolitionists, my 
hope for the gradual removal of slavery centres in the 
influence of the Christian faith. The declarations of 
ceitain southern divines and the tracts of northern 
clubs may lead us to a different conclusion; but I be- 
lieve, ere many years, it will be found that the Bible 



SLAVEBY AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 195 

and the missionaries have sapped the foundation of the 
system, and paved the way for its final overthrow. The 
Reports of the Home Missionary Society, supported by 
the Congregationalists and the New School Presbyte- 
rians, afford abundant testimony of this ; and to the 
former religious denomination, judging from recent 
movements, it is not unlikely that the honour may be 
reserved of undermining, by scriptural instruction, the 
citadel which has so long withstood the more open 
assaults of the politician and the declaimer. Miss 
Bremer met a southern bishop, who expressed himself 
as follows:* — "Already is Christianity labouring to 
elevate the negro population, and from year to year their 
condition improves, both spiritually and physically ; they 
will soon be our equals as regards morals, and when 
they become our equals, they can no longer be our 
slaves. The next step will be for them to receive wages 
as servants : and I know several persons who are already 
treating their slaves as such." Many of you have heard 
of the negro songs, of their dances to the banjo, and of 
their noisy, merrymakings in the magnolia and palmetto 
groves ; but such rejoicings pertained to a state of 
society past away ; now you hear, instead, the striking 
language of the coloured preacher, the murmur of do- 
mestic prayer, and the loud swell of voices joining in an 
anthem of Christian praise. 

The influence of slavery on the future prospects of 
America it is not easy to predict. Mr. Prescott tells 
usf that Cardinal Ximenes, in the fifteenth century, 
earnestly opposed its introduction into Hispaniola, as 
certain, " from the character of the race, to result in a 
servile' war ;" and modern statesmen of all parties seem 
alike puzzled how to rid the Union of an evil, every day 
increasing in magnitude and threatening to break up 
the entire territorial arrangements of North America. 
The battle must be fought, too, not only in Louisiana 
and the Carolinas, but in those half-explored regions 

* " Homes of the New World," vol. i., p. 328. 

f "History of Ferdinand and Isabella," vol. iii., p. 388. 

o 2 



196 AMEBIC A AKD THE AMERICANS. 

which stretch away from the Mississippi to the base of 

the Bocky Mountains, not only in Nebraska and Kansas, 

but on either side of the Bravo Del Norte, and in the 

wilder plains where the Blackfoot Indians now hunt the 

buffalo and the elk. If the slave States do not extend 

and increase in number, their prestige will pass away, 

and their policy at present seems to be to grasp so much 

territory, that the north can never outvote them either 

in the House of Representatives or the / Senate. This 

conflict, however, cannot last for ever ;v as long as new 

lands remain to be annexed, the evil day may be delayed, 

and our friends on the other side of the Atlantic may 

see their bark of empire triumphantly progressing on 

the stream of time ; but an unexpected emergency may 

check its career of victory, and cause a mutiny amongst 

its numerous crew : as Longfellow says, # 

" There is a poor, blind Sampson in this land, 
Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of steel, 
Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand, 
And shake the pillars of the commonweal, 
Till the vast temple of our liberties 
A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies." 

There are many men in America who believe the 
Union has elasticity enough to survive the shock, and 
that its stability will not be seriously endangered by the 
final decision of the question ; there are others who as 
confidently expect the struggle to end in a great social 
convulsion and the establishment of at least two sepa- 
rate republics in the western hemisphere. It would be 
idle in me to speculate on such a contingency ; I would 
only express a fervent hope that the time may soon 
arrive when, in the words of Penimore Cooper, f " these 
fair regions will exist without a single image of the 
Creator that is held in a state which disqualifies him to 
judge of that Creator's goodness." 

"Let good men ne'er of truth despair 
Though humble efforts fail, 
And give not o'er until once more 
The righteous cause prevail ; 

* " The Warning Stanza," iii. 
f " The Spy," chap. xiii. 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 197 

In vain and long enduring wrong 

The weak may strive against the strong, 

But the day shall yet appear 

"When the might with the right and the truth shall be, 

And come what there may to stand in the way, 

That day the world shall see." 

Many of my readers are no doubt aware that some 
years ago a compromise was effected between the north 
and the south, by which the former, in consideration of 
a resolution pledging the United States to annex no 
more slave territory, agreed to pass the fugitive slave 
law. This enactment rendered it compulsory on the 
part of the free states to deliver up runaways, who may 
have taken refuge within their jurisdiction, and to aid 
the marshals of the general government in restoring them 
to their masters. This bill, I was credibly informed, has 
had an extraordinary effect in rousing the feelings of 
the people in all parts of the country, and calling their 
attention to the evils of the system. An excellent man 
settled in Ohio told me that hundreds of persons whom 
he knew had been made anti- slavery men by it, and every 
one knows the manner in which the law has been set at 
nought by judges, magistrates, and citizens, in various 
parts of the Union. Near Bellefontaine three negroes 
who had fled from bondage in Kentucky were decoyed 
into the house of their owner's brother by his son, who 
had recognised them in a railroad-car, and wished to 
keep them until constables arrived to apprehend them ; 
but his intention being discovered, fifteen hundred men 
turned out to the rescue, got possession of their persons, 
and concealed them three weeks, at the end of which 
period the officers were wearied searching for them. 
This is no solitary instance ; such cases happened so 
frequently that the legislature at "Washington began to 
think they had overshot the mark, and even men, who, 
in their public capacity, had voted for the bill, when 
appealed to as private individuals on behalf of victims 
flying from oppression, themselves assisted to render its 
provisions null and void. Some statesmen imagined 
that this statute had for ever settled the dispute between _ 



198 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

the belligerent parties, and its authors were, in certain 
quarters, styled the saviours of their country ; but, alas 
for human foresight, all has already been undone ! 
Shades of Henry Clay and Daniel "Webster ! what think 
ye now of your southern friends, who, after pledging 
their party to ask no more slave territory, last session 
voted in a body and carried the Nebraska Bill, in direct 
violation of a compact of which they were the proposers, 
and which they solemnly swore to defend ? This recent 
measure has once more renewed the war ; the planters 
have thrown down the gauntlet, and, from appearances 
in the north, it will be taken up in a manner which 
may shake the social fabric to its very centre. They 
may sing paeans over a temporary success, and put their 
trust in insignificant politicians, like Stephen A. Douglas, 
who have ambition without principle, and forwardness 
without sterling ability ; but, unless they can shut out 
the literature of the civilized world and stay the pro- 
gress of mankind, they need not persevere in a contest 
which, as sure as' sunset in the western heavens, will 
result in the emancipation of the negrd. 

6 i Let Mammon hold while Mammon can, 
The bones and blood of living man ; 
Let tyrants scorn while tyrants dare, 
The shrieks and writhiugs of despair ; 
An end will come — it will not wait, 
Bonds, yokes and scourges have their date, 
Slavery itself must pass away, 
And be a tale of yesterday."* 

* Montgomery. 



199 



CHAPTER XIX. 

My voyage to Cuba — Approach, to the Queen of the Antilles — Appear- 
ance of Havana — Moonlight on the Plaza das Armas — Roads in Cuba 
— Scenery and vegetation — Visit to a sugar plantation — The process 
of grinding and boiling — Condition of the negroes — Severity of their 
labour — Possibility of obtaining their liberty — Effects of slavery on 
the whites — State of religion in the island — The Priesthood — Charac- 
ter of the Creole — Remarks on the political condition of Cuba — Its 
connexion with Spain, and almost certain annexation to the American 
Union. 

While in the western hemisphere last year I paid a 
visit to the island of Cuba. It was a clear, frosty 
day in December when the steamship " Black "War- 
rior" left New York; scarcely had we passed Sandy 
Hook before we encountered a wintry ocean ; and, as 
the vessel approached Cape Hatteras, the gale increased 
to a hurricane, snapping our gaff as if it had been a 
lucifer-match, carrying away the main-foresail, and 
sending sea after sea into the cabin. Three days after- 
wards we were ploughing our way among the weeds of 
the Gulf-stream, the thermometer seventy degrees in the 
shade, and the passengers all on deck watching the 
breakers on the Bahama reefs, and the low, sandy 
Bernini group of islands. Nothing can be finer than 
the approach to the " Queen of the Antilles," with her 
steep wooded shores, and striking range of rugged in- 
land mountains, but, I must confess, a slight feeling of 
disappointment with the situation of the Moro Castle 
and the general appearance of Havana. The ground 
does not rise sufficiently to make the prospect imposing, 
and the want of church spires, and the lowness of the 
houses, certainly detract from the coup -d' ceil of the 
city. The dwellings reminded me of those in Turkey, 
being, for the most part, only one story high, and 
fantastically painted; while the streets are just wide 
enough to admit of the national conveyance yclept 
"volante," which I can compare to nothing but a kind 
of insect known here under the name of " daddy long- 



200 AMEBIC A AND THE AMEEICAKS. 

legs." The scene on landing, the squabbling boatmen, 
the peculiar cries, the offensive smells, and tatterdemalion 
officials forcibly recalled to my recollection the shores 
of the Mediterranean ; and the evening music and pro- 
menade on the Plaza das Armas made me think of the 
Alameda in Cadiz. The palaces and gardens, the senors 
and senoras, were not different from those that I had seen 
before ; but how can I describe the delicious feeling of 
the air after sunset, the grandeur of the heavens — 

' ' The purple ether that embathes the moon, 
Your large round moon, more beautiful than ours ; 
Your showers of stars, each hanging luminous, 
Like golden dewdrops in the Indian air ?" 

No words can convey the faintest idea of a Cuban 
road. In some places it resembles a watercourse ; in 
others, it consists of deep ruts hidden by grass several 
feet high; in one spot you see no path at all, but 
seem to be passing over a waste of wild flowers ; in 
another, you are glad to leave this apology for a high- 
way, and pursue a devious course across a field of 
Indian corn ; whilst every now and then, if in a volante, 
your " calashero" turns aside to skirt a plantation of 
sugar-canes, or force his way through a grove of bitter 
oranges. Once my charioteer, to my extreme astonish- 
ment, leaped his horses, vehicle and all, over a thick 
cactus hedge, and then descended, pellmell, into a 
gulley several feet deep. The scenery of this lovely 
island far surpassed my expectations. In the hands of 
an energetic race it could be made a very paradise ; for 
the soil brings forth almost spontaneously, and food for 
man hangs in clusters from every other tree ; its sur- 
face is pleasantly diversified with hill and dale, moun- 
tain and ravine, and harbours unexcelled invite the 
commerce of the world. The stately king and cocoa- 
nut palms, the plantations of bananas which constitute 
the chief food of the negroes, the waving sea of sugar- 
canes, and the forests of oranges, lying between rugged 
volcanic hills and the deep blue ocean, impress one 
forcibly with the beauty of nature and the luxuriance 



SUGAB-BOILIKG. 201 

of vegetation in the tropics. You miss only the grassy 
bank, the flowery sward, which charm the eye even in 
misty England, but which cannot exist under a "West 
Indian sun. 

My object in going to the country was to see the 
enslaved Africans, and the process of grinding and boil- 
ing sugar. I shall give a short description of the latter. 
On the top of an elevation commanding a fine view over 
fields rustling with canes, or glittering with oranges, 
and near the planter's abode, which is an edifice so mean 
and rude that it would be uninhabitable in any other 
climate, stands the mill where a high-pressure steam- 
engine, made at Birmingham, drives the great roller 
which crushes the cane. The bruised cane falls out at 
the other side, and is piled by negroes on carts drawn 
by oxen, to be driven to the furnaces and used as fuel. 
Ihe juice drops into a vessel below, and runs off along a 
trough in a continuous stream to the boilers in another 
part of the building, where, after passing from one great 
copper-vessel to another, increasing heat being applied 
as it proceeds, it is thrown by the oversman into a cool 
tank and crystallized by being tossed into the air, and 
allowed to fall back again into the receptacle. A blun- 
dering striker may, by not hitting the right moment for 
this operation, by stopping the fires too soon, or letting 
them burn too long, spoil many boxes of the precious 
material. After being crystallized, it is put in metal 
pots and covered with clay, so as to exclude the air, and 
thereby give the manufacture a whiter colour. These 
pots have a hole in the bottom, out of which the molasses 
or treacle flows into troughs placed below the floor 
of the warehouse, to be conveyed into vats in the 
cellar. In Cuba the crushed cane makes better fuel 
than timber. In Louisiana, again, the moisture of the 
atmosphere renders it useless for this purpose. There 
are three kinds of cane — the green, the girded, and the 
crystalline ; the planters require to keep an immense 
number of oxen and carts to bring in the produce from 
\ the fields and take it to market, and both last a very short 



202 AMEBIC A AND THE AMEBIC ANS. 

time, owing to the dreadful state of the roads. The 
negroes in Cuba live in miserable huts like Hottentot 
dwellings, and scarcely fit for the accommodation of the 
lower animals. Their children may be seen running 
stark naked within enclosures with old and ugly women 
tending them, as if they were pigs or hens. The ablest- 
bodied slaves work in the fields. Those employed in- 
doors, at the furnaces and the mills, struck me as the 
most miserable, emaciated, and brutalized beings that I 
had ever seen, resembling, in fact, monkeys rather than 
men. If the Africans are badly treated in the Southern 
States of the American Union, they are far worse treated 
on this island, being compelled to labour more continu- 
ously and more severely than flesh and blood will stand. 
The grinding goes on night and day for six months in 
the year, when they work in relays, and are only allowed 
six hours rest for meals and sleep out of the twenty- 
four. On some plantations barbarous masters give 
them only three hours, calculating that it is cheaper to 
buy new importations from Africa at the end of a few 
years, than to save the strength of the present hands 
by giving them better food and mitigating their toil. 
They are regularly driven to their task by the whip like 
beasts of burden, and those who show symptoms of 
disaffection may be seen heavily chained. I can con- 
ceive of no more painful sight than immortal creatures so 
degraded, deformed, and worn out with exertion which 
the human frame is not fitted to endure. On the other 
hand, slaves in Cuba can and frequently do buy their 
freedom ; quite a number of them possess purses of 
dollars which they are hoarding for that purpose ; if 
their owner refuse to give them their liberty when the 
legal sum has been tendered to him, they can appeal 
to the syndic, who sees justice done ; when emancipated 
they carry on commercial or agricultural business, pro- 
tected by the laws of the colony, and enjoying a climate 
which, to the black man, is an earthly Eden. In these 
respects, the Southern States of America, with all their 
boastod enlightenment, might learn a lesson from the 
legislation of corrupt and despised Spain! The effect 



THE CREOLES. 203 

of slavery on material progress and social advancement 
is the same in both countries, shutting them out from 
the profits of skilled labour, preventing the consequent 
increase of capital, and perpetuating both ignorance 
and crime. The same chain which binds the wretched 
negro fetters the white man in the great struggle for 
industrial development, riches, and political power. 

It may, I believe, be truthfully said that there is no 
such thing as religion in Cuba. Sunday is not even 
observed as a holiday, business going on quite as usual • 
many large towns have only a single church, and the 
men never enter a place of worship except on some rare 
occasion, to look at the women who go there to display 
their pretty faces and their finery. The priests live in 
avowed breach of canonical laws, indulging in licentious 
practices without scruple, and caring very little even for 
the welfare of that Roman Catholicism which has made 
practical infidels of the entire population. With such a 
state of things, one need not look in any rank of life 
for what we call morality. The Creoles appeared to me 
a remarkably diminutive race, with unintelligent counte- 
nances and little physical grace. To a man they are 
discontented with Spanish rule, but then they have 
neither the energy to strike a blow for freedom, nor the 
ability to govern themselves were they to obtain their 
liberty. Pit for nothing but to drill slaves, smoke 
cigars, imbibe eau sucre, and lounge in the cafes, they 
will in all probability for ages continue in leading- 
strings to a people of more enterprise and legislative 
talent. Every person with whom I conversed looked 
forward to the time when the " Queen of the Antilles" 
will be annexed to the American Union. For my part, 
I do not think there is an alternative, Spanish dominion 
being certainly doomed, and no other nation having such 
a natural claim to the sovereignty as the United States. * 
It is true that the effect of this might be to prevent for 
a time the gradual abolition of slavery ; but on the other 

* Of course no well-disposed man wishes success to the hordes of 
freebooters from America, who have once and again attempted to revo- 
lutionize the island. 



204 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

hand, the resources of the magnificent country would be 
developed, roads, railways, and telegraphs constructed, 
the trade in negroes with Africa abolished, schools es- 
tablished, and Protestant worship introduced with all 
its life-giving influences to awaken the dormant energies 
of mind ; the soil, naturally so rich, would then bring 
forth abundantly for man and beast, and an island 
already to some extent a garden, would be made in the 
hands of skilful workmen to rejoice and blossom as the 
rose. If the Anglo-Americans were to obtain pos- 
session, they would re-create the social fabric in less 
than a couple of years. At present, Cuba serves as a 
mere milk cow to old Spain, which drains her annually 
of a million sterling. Notwithstanding its wonderful 
fertility, flour costs SI. a barrel, because the people are 
not industrious enough to produce it, and because a 
senseless government has imposed an excessive duty on 
its importation ; all offices are filled by lazy Spaniards, 
who come out for a few years for the express purpose 
of robbing, peculating, and making money by permitting 
in an underhand manner the oceanic traffic in negroes ; 
no man can reside in the country unless he swears that 
he is a Soman Catholic ; the mountains teem with run- 
away slaves, whom no military force has been able to 
subdue ; only a small portion of the land is under culti- 
vation ; the traveller, for fear of robbers, must arm him- 
self to the teeth ; old plantations are running out for 
want of agricultural skill • scarcely any roads have yet 
been made ; no vessel can enter Havana after sunset or 
before sunrise ; even the inhabitants cannot move about 
without passports ; the Creoles cherish a bitter hatred 
to Spanish domination ; trade stagnates, and manufac- 
tures are unknown ; while an active, enterprising people 
look upon the island with a covetous eye, wanting it as 
a home for their invalids, a tropical state for their Union, 
and a key to the navigation of the Mexican Grulf. What 
interest can we British have in opposing an acquisition 
clearly foreshadowed by nature and destiny ? As com- 
mercial men, as philanthropists, as Protestants, we should 






POLITICS OE CUBA. 205 

desire to see the Saxon replace the Castilian, and Cuba 
opened up to civilization and Christian truth. And 
further, we may just as well make a virtue of necessity, 
for apart altogether from lawless landings, if money will 
purchase the country, or if Spain be foolish enough to 
allow misunderstandings to lead to war, as sure as the 
rocks of the Moro are washed by the ocean, the star- 
spangled banner will wave from its heights. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

Rapid growth, of the United States — The Mississippian valley — Its 
discovery, settlement, and vast resources — The great lakes — Travel- 
ling in the White Mountains — The wooden hotels — The wilds of 
New Hampshire — Lake Winnipiseogee — Scenery in the New England 
States bordering on the Atlantic — Albany to New York — The banks 
of the Hudson. 

Most men in this great commercial country have some 
acquaintance with the vast and increasing influence 
which our race and institutions now exercise throughout 
the habitable globe. They know that millions in Asia 
bow under British sway, that we wield an extending 
power in Africa, and that at the far Antipodes our 
colonists have laid the foundation of an empire, which 
at no distant day may assert an undisputed pre-eminence 
south of the equator. Above all, few indeed among us 
can be ignorant of the fact that a great republic in the 
west, a tree of our own right hands planting, an honour 
to the parent stem — is daily growing in population, 
wealth, and power, promising in fact to overshadow with 
its mighty branches the effete dynasties of the olden 
world. 

When we hear of New York having seven hundred 
thousand inhabitants, of railroads and telegraphs inter- 
secting the country in various ramifications, from the 
St. Lawrence to the Grulf of Mexico, of fleets rivalling 
England's navies, sent to monopolize the Antarctic whale 
: trade, to fill the docks in the Mersey, and to eclipse our 



206 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

merchantmen in the eastern seas; when we see the 
representatives of Congress respected at every foreign 
court, the stars and stripes waving proudly in Mediter- 
ranean harbours, and Italian artists busily preparing ex- 
pensive works designed to adorn the saloons of trans- 
atlantic mansions — we must feel deeply impressed with 
the rising fortunes of the United States of America. 

But perhaps many of us may not have attentively 
studied the geographical position, the natural features, 
or the wonderful resources of the provinces included in 
that comprehensive name. We have been chiefly familiar 
with the great cities on the eastern coast, those districts 
known to cotton spinners, shipowners and dealers in 
produce. Let us make a clean breast of it at once, and 
confess that America beyond the Alleghanies is to tens 
of thousands of our countrymen an unknown land. 

But what a small proportion do New England, New 
York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas bear 
to the almost boundless territories within the limits of 
the Federal Union. As Holland to Europe east of the 
Rhine, as Normandy to the wide plains of France, so 
are these States on the Atlantic seaboard to the mighty 
regions through which the Mississippi rolls its turbid 
stream. 

About the middle of the sixteenth century one of 
Pizarro's most distinguished captains, having returned 
to Spain with immense wealth, and all the reputation 
which success confers on eminent abilities, obtained 
from Charles V. the government of Florida. Like 
Cortez, he burnt his ships before commencing his march 
into the interior, and he it was who, first of Europeans, 
near the spot where Memphis now stands, discovered 
the " Father of "Waters." No steamers then hurried 
along that great highway to unexplored regions, no 
cotton plantations were to be seen among the denizens 
of the forest ; senates, representatives, and state houses 
were unknown, even the log hut had no existence, nor 
had the hunter's rifle disturbed the gaily painted birds, 
— all was solemnity, stillness, desolation, excepting 



THE MISSISSIPPI^ TALLET. 207 

when a red man's paddle scared the wild fowl, or an 
Indian war-whoop awakened the echoes of the woods. 
The captain, who expected to find another mine of 
Potosi, to open up countries more auriferous than 
Peru, fell a victim to disappointment and fatigue. 
Xear the point where the Eed Biver mingles its cur- 
rent with the parent stream, some say under its bed, 
in the silence of night, for fear of avaricious foes, were 
buried the mortal remains of Ferdinand de Soto. How 
few, amongst the busy thousands who now pass the 
spot, think of him whose daring first revealed the exist- 
ence of the Mississippian valley ! 

Two hundred years have passed away, and with them 
the glory of the Spanish arms ; but the great country, 
watered from the Eocky Mountains, fell into other 
hands, and when it came under the dominion of the 
Anglo-Saxon race, it might almost be said that " a nation 
was born in a day." The Spaniards took possession at 
first, but did no more for its civilization than the 
wandering: aboriginal tribes ; the French succeeded, and 
still the Mississippi flowed through a solitude ; at 
length Congress bought the territory, and soon the 
face of nature underwent a change ; merrily rung the 
axe in wild brushwood brakes, villages started into 
existence where wigwams were before ; the planter 
laid out his cotton-fields ; the sugar cane rose amid 
blackened stumps, and the Indian retired gloomily up 
the Arkansas to bide his final time — a time not far dis- 
tant when his race shall all be gathered to their fathers, 
near the Great Spirit whom they adore. 

The vast resources of this valley we can scarcely 
exaggerate by the most glowing description. Already 
a thousand steamers ply on its rivers, conveying to 
New Orleans the products of various climates and 
various soils ; powerful vessels daily leave Pittsburg 
on the Ohio, for the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of 
2100 miles ; from St. Louis, high-pressure boats ascend 
to the Palls of St. Anthony on the one river, and on 
the other — the Missouri, into regions yet unknown : 



208 AMEBIC A AND THE AMERICANS. 

quite a fleet of these ships belong to Cincinnati alone, 
and all day long you may hear on the broad waters the 
hum of an active, energetic, and money-making race. 
Then, who can tell how many millions of human 
beings the virgin soil of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois 
could feed, — how many successive crops of wheat could, 
without manure or drains, be extracted from the prairie 
land, or how many populous cities will yet appear in 
spots where fifty years ago the hunter dwelt alone ? 
Why, St. Louis already contains 120,000 inhabitants, 
and St. Louis is 1200 miles due west of New York. 
There are Cairos, and Palmyras, and Troys, and Alex- 
andrias, and Salems there too, — small villages, it may 
be, now ; but destined perhaps in after years to rival 
the wealth and splendour of their famous namesakes 
in the east. 

The quantity of breadstuff's, cotton, sugar, tobacco, 
pork, lard, hemp, and other productions, annually car- 
ried down the Mississippi is amazing; and when we 
recollect that the cultivated spots are as yet mere oases 
in the wilderness, can we fail to remark that this country, 
under free institutions, inhabited by such a people, bids 
fair to occupy a leading place in history, when old worn- 
out monarchies have crumbled to their fall ? 

Nor must we forget the region of the Great Lakes — 
Superior, Michigan, Huron, St. Glair, Erie, and Ontario, 
the importance of which we at home can scarcely ap- 
preciate. They are 1470 miles long, they have a coast 
of nearly 5000 miles, and an incredible number of large 
paddle-wheel steamers, propellers, barques, schooners, 
and sloops, ply between the various ports on their shores. 
The quays and wharves of the new cities which almost 
every year are rising up in these vast inland seas, may 
be seen constantly covered with merchandise discharged 
from, or about to be placed on board of the trading 
craft, and both on the American and Canadian side, rich 
mineral districts, and plains of wonderful fertility attract 
the settler. The Welland Canal, round the Falls of 
Niagara, connects Erie with Ontario, and very soon a 



THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 209 

similar mode of communication past the Sault St. Marie 
will enable ships to bring the copper of Lake Superior 
to Buffalo and Detroit. Tou are often, even in a fast 
steamboat, for hours out of sight of land ; Lake Erie, 
being shallow, is subject to frequent and violent storms, 
very destructive to property and life ; when I first saw 
Lake Michigan, huge waves were rolling in like 
avalanches, and breaking on the beach in foam ; and on 
Lake Ontario I experienced, greatly to my own astonish- 
ment, all the horrors of sea-sickness. 

Let us here, instead of continuing to generalise, select 
a few particular scenes out of the many which interest 
the traveller in the United States of America, a descrip- 
tion of which, from notes taken down on the spot, may 
convey to some minds a better idea of natural objects 
and of the mode of travelling, than any statements, 
however minute and accurate, not conveyed in the narra- 
tive form. 

"We are now in a railroad train among the Green 
Mountains of Vermont, crossing and recrossing the 
Winooski, or Onion Eiver, which, in some places, boils 
and foams between rugged rocks, and, at others, winds 
along grassy valleys, adorned with well-built farm-houses 
and noble trees. Every few miles we arrive at a vil- 
lage, beautifully situated on a plain covered with rich 
meadows and fields of Indian corn ; and, at midday, turn 
towards the north, to follow the course of the noblest 
stream in New England — the Connecticut, or Eiver of 
Pines. This valley, when cleared and well cultivated, 
will be one of the most fertile grain districts in North 
America. The hamlets, with their white church spires, 
and school-houses embosomed in apple trees, the over- 
hanging rocks, and distant hills, form pleasing objects in 
the landscape. At Wells, we strike off up the Arrmio- 
noosuck to Littleton, where a coach, drawn by six horses, 
is in readiness to convey us to the Eranconia Notch in 
the White Mountains. This is one of the wildest regions 
in the United States. Eroin the top of the stage we 
have a wide prospect over forests, pastoral valleys, 



210 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

ravines, and dingles ; Mount Lafayette rising before us in 
solemn majesty, and behind us, far as the eye can 
reach, an undulating country, stretching away towards the 
frontiers of Canada. For the first three miles the drive 
lies through a tangled wood, and up an ascent so steep 
that our team occasionally pauses. The road is so narrow 
that the trees touch the carriage on both sides at the 
same time, and so rough, that passengers hold on firmly 
for their lives ; yet the coachman drives his six in hand 
with the utmost ease and skill. The horses are young 
and handsome, such as you see in an English gentle- 
man's establishment, worth £40 to £70. They are 
all purchased in spring, and sold when, in autumn, the 
season closes. Darkness has now overtaken us, and by 
the faint light of the moon, we mistake larch trees for 
the pinnacles of churches, and oak copses for vast hotels. 
At length we emerge into an opening, and drive up to 
the commodious Profile House, a large wooden building, 
so called on account of a singularly striking profile of an 
old man presented by a rock near the summit of the 
adjoining hill. It stands at the highest level of the 
Pranconia Pass or Notch, and at the head waters of the 
Pemigiwassett, near defiles, chasms, and waterfalls, which 
delight the citizens of New York and Boston. After 
all, they appear paltry in comparison with Swiss, or even 
Scotch, scenery ; but the stranger will never weary of 
the vegetation of the woods, where, now and then, he 
finds clumps of giant hemlock trees, towering far above 
cedars, pines, elms, oaks, black, green, and white birches, 
and maples, rock and white. Prom the rock maple they 
extract sugar, camping out in the forest to obtain the 
juice. Every now and then a snake darts across your 
path, and blue jays, partridges, and owls enliven soli- 
tudes disturbed by the presence of restless and wide- 
wandering man. Let us now retrace our steps as far as 
Pranconia village, where the stage turns to the right to 
cross a hillside, over a bad road or rather stony track, 
to Bethlehem, a little town half way between Littleton 
and the North of the Saco and the "White Mountains, 



THE SACO VALLEY. 211 

properly so-called, Mount Lafayette being situated at a 
considerable distance from the others in this imposing- 
range. Having changed horses, we proceed in the direc- 
tion of the pass, every now and then emerging from dense, 
damp, and tangled w^oods into clearings indicative of an 
industrious people, whose neat white houses, well-filled 
barns, and fat cattle, attest their descent from the Anglo- 
Saxons. Land is worth two dollars to six dollars an 
acre in this part of New Hampshire. To clear it they 
set fire to the forest, then cut down the charred timber, 
and allow the stumps to remain in the ground till rotten 
enough to be ploughed down by oxen. Before us rise 
the sombre summits of Mounts Adams, Jefferson, 
Madison, Franklin, and Monro ; but a misty shroud 
conceals the top of Mount Washington, 6243 feet high. 
Again giant trees obscure our view, and slowly we 
pursue our way across marshy hollows. Another open- 
ing — we look again towards the everlasting hills, and 
behold the tints of evening sunshine illumine Agioco- 
chook, " The Throne of the Great Spirit," as the Indians 
call the highest mountain in the United States. The 
cloud has rolled away, and, among these bulwarks of 
Nature, it stands out in commanding majesty, like a pre- 
siding deity, i The imagination of the red man gave it 
its appropriate name. At the head of the pass stands 
the Crawford House, a large wooden inn, with most ex- 
tensive stables and outhouses, open from April till 
September for the accommodation of those who wish to 
ascend the mountain. The Saco, for a long distance 
below it, rushes through a narrow defile, descending 
eight hundred feet in three miles, then waters a grassy 
valley covered with apple trees, and beyond Bartlett 
meanders in a wide plain, resembling very much some 
of the valleys in Northern Lombardy, and that in 
Styria near Grratz. But there are many signs of a more 
enterprising people than those under Austrian rule. 
Nowhere in the world will the stranger find a more 
thriving, comfortable, and independent, a better edu- 
cated, or a more moral and religious peasant proprietary, 

p2 



212 AMEEICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

than inhabit this New England district. We have now 
left Conway, its capital, and, after a tedious journey of 
many hours through oak copses, have arrived at Centre 
Harbour, on Lake Winnipiseogee, " The Beautiful 
Lake" of the Indians, associated with not a few romantic 
legends of the wars between the pale faces and the 
former possessors of the soil. Most of these sheets of 
water in North America have monotonous shores, unre- 
lieved by cliffs, promontories, or islands ; but the one 
on which our dove-like steamer now skims, differs in 
these respects entirely from its neighbours. So inter- 
spersed are wood and water, that we doubt whether 
"Winnipiseogee is a lake, a river, or only the effect of an 
inundation on a beautiful plain. Vegetation luxuriates 
on its banks, peaked and isolated hills stand like senti- 
nels around it, and towards the north an amphitheatre 
of lofty mountains secludes it from the world. 

The scenery in Massachusetts, Maine, Khode Island, 
and Connecticut, presents few features of much interest. 
Hills and dales, rivers and plains, snugly situated vil- 
lages, white houses and whiter spires, pleasantly diversify 
the rural districts ; while every now and then the tra- 
veller arrives at a manufacturing community located on 
the banks of a stream which affords a sufficiency of 
water power. Even in the primitive woods he hears the 
mill bell and the wheel 'which drives the spinning jenny 
and the loom. The small towns with their wide and 
straight streets, shaded by rows of trees, cover six or 
eight times as much ground as those in Europe. The 
steepled church always occupies the most conspicuous 
site ; near it is the school-house, and most of the private 
dwellings stand separate in a garden plot, are built of 
wood, painted white, with green blinds, and have ve- 
randahs, on which, in the summer evenings, the inhabi- 
tants sit in family groups as in sunny Italy. The 
peninsulas and promontories on the coast afford pic- 
turesque stances for villas, and there you may see the 
ornamented residences of the rich peeping out from 



THE HUDSOX. 213 

among groves of dwarf cedars, acacias, oaks, beeches, 
hickory, sassafras, and fir trees, and rocks, covered with 
so scanty a soil, that you wonder at the luxuriance of 
the foliage and the beauty of the flowers. 

Let us transport ourselves to Albany, the capital of 
the State of Kew York, situated on a hill side sloping 
down to the Hudson, and commanding a remarkable 
view of the busy valley watered by that stream, bounded 
on the north by Mount Ida, with Troy at its base, and 
on the south by the distant Catskills. We have 
descended from the upper part of the city and mingle 
with a crowd of five or six hundred people, who are 
hurrying on board one of those floating palaces which 
render travelling agreeable on the great rivers of the 
United States. Leaving our fellow-passengers to their 
newspapers, novels, ice-water, and sherry-cobblers, we 
go up to the hurricane deck to enjoy a sail far superior 
in picturesque beauty to that between Mayence and 
Coblentz on the Rhine. For several miles below Albany 
the Hudson is too shallow for ships of considerable bur- 
then, and numerous islands render the navigation 
difficult. The land on both sides is highly cultivated, 
and adorned by many large mansions, belonging princi- 
pally to the wealthy descendants of the original Dutch 
settlers. As you approach the town of Hudson the river 
expands, assuming a more majestic appearance, and 
affording depth of water for vessels of greater tonnage. 
Towards the west, the wooded summits of the Catskill 
mountains now rise into view. On one of them a large 
hotel has been erected, which, during the season, is 
crowded with the beauty and fashion of the larger towns, 
especially ISew York. Few cities in the world possess 
a more magnificent retreat, supplied with all the com- 
forts of civilization, yet situated in the midst of a primeval 
forest, and overlooking a country to the westward, where 
not many living voices have been heard since the Indian 
sorrowfully forsook his childhood's home. In the upper 
part even of the Empire State many thousand acres of 



214 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS, 

rich land have not yet been tilled, and thousands more 
are scarcely known except to the hunter who chases in 
these solitudes the stag or the bear. 

How bright and cheerful are the little towns and 
villages on the banks of the Hudson ! Their white 
houses, large hotels, and wooden piers, at every turn 
offer temptations to the painter ; and Poughkeepsie, the 
prettiest of these quiet abodes, reminds us of the Italian 
hamlets which overhang the lovely Lake of Como. But 
now beauty gives place to grandeur ; the steamer has 
called at Newburgh, and approaches the far-famed 
" Highlands," that wild scene, where the river under 
vast perpendicular cliffs and overhanging forests of foliage 
forces its way through the gorge of the Matteawan Moun- 
tains. The Crow's Nest frowns before us, the banks 
recede, the shadows fall, the wind eddies behind granite 
rocks far above us, we can see trees on the edge of the 
precipice, we can almost fancy ourselves in the bay of 
Kussnacht on the Lake of Lucerne, and we feel solemnized 
by the sublimity of that defile which gives the great river 
free egress to the sea. For a moment we stop at West 
Point, the seat of the United States Military Academy, 
and looking upwards to the pillar which commemorates 
the virtues of Kosciusko, we pronounce its situation finer 
than that of Asmanhaugen or St. Goar. Below Peekshill 
the Hudson widens into a spacious lake called the Tap- 
paan Zee, the most conspicuous object on whose shores 
is the great state prison of Sing Sing ; then, contracting 
again, has for its western boundary for several miles a 
singular wall of columnar rock, varying from forty to 
three hundred feet in height, and named the Palisades. 
The life and variety on the waters and the shores of this 
river will strike the stranger. Every few minutes 
steamers shoot past, ferry boats cross the bows of the 
vessel which conveys him, eager crowds wait on the land- 
ing-places, and innumerable sloops, spreading an extra- 
ordinary extent of canvas for their size, tack up and 
down in all directions. But passengers now begin to 
look after their baggage, the steersman's bell tingles 



LAKE GEORGE. 215 

twice, the engine slows, then stops, the ship swings 
round to a quay among a wilderness of masts, and we 
find ourselves rubbing shoulders with the busy popula- 
tion of New York. 



GHAPTEE XXI. 

Lake George — Ticonderoga — Utica and the valley of the Mohawk — 
Trenton Falls — The agricultural districts — Rearing of stock in 
Kentucky — Products of America — The prairie land of Illinois — ■ 
Wheat fields of Ohio — Corn-growing in Western New York — Rochester 
— The Grenesee plains — -Mineral wealth of the Union — Visit to the 
Falls of Niagara. 

We now change the scene of our excursions, and on an 

August evening sit in the verandah of the large wooden 

hotel which welcomes travellers to the hamlet of Caldwell 

at the southern extremity of Lake George. Several 

pleasure boats, and the tiny little steamer " John Jay," 

lie at the rustic, quay which terminates the garden ; we 

had encountered a thunderstorm on our journey from 

Saratoga, and now that darkness has closed around, sheet 

lightning illuminates every alternate moment the heavens, 

the lake, and the wooded hills on the opposite shore. 

The atmosphere is so balmy that we feel loth to retire 

to rest ; the rain has sweetened the breath of Nature ; 

each electric flash discovers new* beauties in the prospect, 

and the waters, unruffled even by a passing breeze, invite 

contemplation and repose. 

" 'Twas one of those ambrosial eves 
A day of storms so often leaves." 

Next morning, bright and beautiful, finds us steaming up 
Lake Horicon, or, as the Catholics from the transparent 
purity of its water designated it, Lake Sacrament. How 
much more expressive the Indian, or that name given 
by the missionaries, than the Anglo-American title which 
it now bears ! Innumerable legends are connected with 
its inlets and headlands, and in former times holy founts 
in distant towns were supplied from its pellucid waves. 
In some places it very much resembles Loch Lomond, 



216,. AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

and like it varies greatly in width — now expanding so as 
to afford space for many islands clothed with verdure and 
picturesquely formed — again contracting between frown- 
ing cliffs, where not a house or clearing appears among 
the trees and rocks. On the eastern shore Black Mountain 
rears its gloomy summit above a hundred rolling hills 
covered to their cones with wood ; and in some places so 
narrow is the channel among little islets of every conceiv- 
able shape, that we imagine ourselves among the Thousand 
Islands of the St. Lawrence, or the wild vegetation of the 
Swedish lakes. Arrived at the northern extremity, we get 
on the top of a stage* and drive over a rising ground, 
dotted with oak and chestnut trees like an English noble- 
man's park, to Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, so 
celebrated in the revolutionary war. Soon the " Canada," 
a steamer unexcelled in point of internal arrangement and 
decoration, reaches the wooden quay on which we wait. 
She has come from "Whitehall, through the Trossach 
scenery at the southern end of this much admired lake, 
and we proceed in her as far as Burlington, a thriving 
town in Vermont, backed by the Green Mountains, and 
commanding a beautiful prospect of the sharp peaks of 
the Adirondack hills on the opposite shore. Lake 
Champlain stretches into Canada for several miles after 
passing St. John's. Where you leave the railroad from 
Montreal, and embark on board the steamer, nothing is 
visible except the unvarying forest; but the banks belong- 
ing to the United States display a pleasing variety of 
cultivated fields, snug villages, and belts of wood, bare 
crags now and then relieving the wide expanse of green. 
Though scarcely so grand as Horicon, or so striking as 
the Highlands of the Hudson, this sheet of water pos- 
sesses perhaps more artistic beauties than any other in 
]NTorth America. 

We visit now a different scene. One of those tremen- 
dous thunderstorms, which in summer sometimes burst 
upon the fertile plains of the Union, has overtaken us at 
Utica, a thriving town of 20,000 inhabitants, in the broaS 
* Stage is the American designation of stage-coach. 



TRENTON FALLS. 217 

and wealthy valley of the Mohawk. In a few hours the 
river has risen above all its banks ; fish leap among the 
Indian corn plants, and men in boats rescue drift timber 
floating on meadows where cattle grazed the day before. 
We seize the opportunity to cross the hills to Trenton 
Tails, a series of wild cataracts on the West Canada 
Creek, in a comparatively remote district of the country. 
An ascent five miles long leads to the summit of the 
ridge, from which we look down on a prospect remarkably 
like that which greets the traveller, who, having traversed 
the chain of the Apennines from Bologna southwards, 
arrives at the brow of the hill near Fiesole, and looks 
down on Val d'Arno and beautiful Florence. The plank 
road is somewhat out of repair, so we do not progress 
very rapidly ; but at length we reach the defile, and hear 
the roaring of the troubled stream. The time is well 
chosen ; for the waters are pouring down in terrific 
volume, and their brownish amber tinge contrasts in a 
very striking manner with the dark green foliage hang- 
ing over the chasm. The flood has covered the usual 
pathway under the beetling cliffs ; so in order to see the 
various leaps, which are some distance apart, we have to 
penetrate the tangled boughs of the forest, now emerging 
into what Ariosto calls a 

" Fresca stanza fra 1' ombre piti nascose," 

now torn in thickets which obscure the light of day, 
and again finding ourselves on a giddy ledge two hundred 
feet above a rapid, roaring in its strength. The luxuriance 
of vegetation is charming ; a few of the trees have begun 
to change colour, and autumn tints of red and yellow 
enliven the solemnity of pines. Here and there a 
majestic hemlock rears its crest into the heavens, and 
every now and then drives a drenching spray into our 
faces, as we put aside the branches to take another peep 
down into the abyss where the waters roar. We are 
here alone with ^Nature in her wildest mood, we feel as 
if the sublime scene around us had just come fresh from 
its Creator's hand, and our imagination, seizing the 



218 AMEKICA AHD THE AMEBIC AtfS. 

reins, transports us, in fancy, far beyond the portals of 
this every-day world. 

We must now, however, visit the agricultural districts, 
and say a word regarding those vast plains which may 
well be called the granary of the western hemisphere. 
To form any correct idea of American farming, it is 
necessary to leave the great beaten tracks, the lines of 
railways and steamers, and saunter along the byeways 
of the land. In new England the soil, being in general 
light and rocky, does not produce heavy crops of grain ; 
but it is admirably adapted for raising live stock, and its 
pasturages afford dainty food to thousands of horses, 
sheep, and horned cattle. Not only in the eastern, but 
even in the young States bordering on the Mississippi, 
agricultural fairs are now annually held, and to them 
multitudes repair to see and learn. The people of 
Kentucky have, of late, taken a great interest in the 
improvement of the breeds of domestic animals. One 
joint-stock company has imported largely from Great 
Britain and the continent of Europe, and has sold their 
importations at very high prices. They are said to have 
realized 25,000 dollars by their last adventure ; 1000 
dollars were given for a single bull, and 200 dollars for 
a sow. Some leading men in that State, Henry Clay, 
for example, have been active farmers, and their exer- 
tions have fostered the scientific spirit now abroad in 
that part of the country. Much attention is also there 
given to the rearing of mules for the southern planta- 
tions. They are said to be cheaper to feed, and to last 
longer than horses, when worked on the rice and cotton 
fields of the slave States. The best judges prefer as 
food for horses the leaves of the Indian corn, bruised, and 
sprinkled over with its meal. Oats do not thrive well in 
America, and the maize itself they pronounce too heat- 
ing. Virginia and the districts adjacent to it grow im- 
mense quantities of tobacco ; Georgia and the Carolinas 
have a name for excellent rice ; the sugar-cane flourishes 
in Louisiana; and every one knows that nearly our 
entire supply of cotton comes from the "United States, 



ILLINOIS. 219 

south of the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude ; but wheal; 
and Indian corn may be called the products of Nortli 
America, The splendid alluvial lands in the Mississi'p- 
pian valley, sometimes one hundred feet deep, require no 
manure, but, for a long term of years, have gono on 
producing more and more, instead of showing any 
symptoms of exhaustion ; and wheat can be rais ed for 
ten shillings a quarter on the prairies of the north-* vve stern 
States. During my tour, in the autumn of 1853, in a 
railroad car between Indianopolis and Bellefontaine, I 
turned the conversation on agricultural matters, nearly 
all the group of passengers around me being farmers. 
Illinois, they agreed, was the finest State in the Union. 
Some settlers there own 1000 acres of land, and raise 
seventy-five bushels of Indian corn per acre ; and farms 
of 500 to 600 acres are quite common. It is the general 
opinion that when railroads have been constructed 
throughout that State, the proprietors of its soil will 
become enormously wealthy. Indiana is less fertile and 
far more densely wooded. Uncleared land sells for- twelve 
dollars an acre there ; cleared, but poor land, brings 
twenty-five dollars to thirty dollars, while the best corn 
land cannot be got under fifty dollars. Strange to say, 
in Illinois, prairies requiring very little labour to bring 
them under cultivation, can still be purchased at ten 
dollars to twelve dollars an acre. This difference arises 
from its being somewhat further off from the markets 
of the eastern States ; but railroads will soon obviate an 
objection which every year becomes of less and less im- 
portance. I have myself seen Indian corn twelve to 
fourteen feet high on the central prairies of Illinois ; and 
intelligent fellow-travellers told me that thousands upon 
thousands of bushels, both of it and wheat, are left to 
rot on the more inaccessible lands every fall. It is no 
unusual thing to turn the pigs into fields of grain which 
will not bear the cost of reaping and transportation. In 
some parts of America they cut off the heads, or rather, 
tops of the maize to be given as fodder to the cattle. 
Very often, too, between the plants of this cereal, grows 



220 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

v> sort of pumpkin, called squash, the huge oval fruit of 
which has, generally, a bright orange colour, and re- 
mains on the field after the corn has been removed. It 
then looks remarkably well and imparts quite an air of 
comfort to the country. "If ever Providence," says 
Hawthorne, in his "Mosses from an Old Manse," 
" shouxd assign me a superfluity of gold, part of it shall 
be expended for a service of plate, or most delicate 
porcelain, to be wrought into the shapes of summer 
squashes, gathered from vines which I will plant with 
my own hands." 

The traveller, in the United States, every now and 
then finds, stretched out before him, a tract of country 
of immense resources, waving with corn, well watered, 
possessing a natural slope, invaluable for drainage, and 
affording clover fields for thousands of plump cattle. 
Such is the character of the prospect from Laurel Hill, 
on the west side of the Alleghanies, between Cumberland 
and the Monongahela river ; such the view of the Con- 
necticut valley from Mount Holyoke ; such the plain of 
Lexington in Kentucky. But we shall now, if my readers 
choose, take a trip across the enterprising State of Ohio. 
Having a rich soil and abundant facilities for the transit 
of grain, it supplies Europe with an ever-increasing 
quantity of provisions, and supports a population occu- 
pying a very conspicuous and influential position in the 
republic. We travel slowly in the old lumbering stage, 
before the railroads were formed between Cincinnati 
and the Lake. We find ourselves, after leaving be- 
hind the villas and orchards near that great city, amidst 
vast fields of wheat, the decaying stumps of the trees 
relieving the brilliant green of the springing blade, and 
neat farm-houses now and then showing their white 
walls between the branches of elm and maple which 
shelter them from the heat of a July sun. A large propor- 
tion of the land, however, appears to be still uncleared, 
the primeval forests often extending as far as the eye 
can reach, over hill and dale. In the south part of 
the State they cultivate Indian corn extensively, and 



AGBICliLTUEE Df OHIO. 221 

rye grows on the poorer soils ; but -wheat is the staple 
crop, being, in ordinary seasons, the most remunerative 
to the farmer. The grain is ground at the grist mills, 
one of which serves for every four or five farms, and 
then transported, either to Cincinnati for shipment down 
the river to Xew Orleans, or to the ports of Lake Erie, 
where it is carried by propellers to Buffalo, and from 
thence despatched by canal to New York. The average 
value of the farms was, in 1846, forty dollars per acre ; 
and but little attention has as yet been paid to improved 
methods of cultivation, it being less expensive to clear 
new tracts than to manure and drain those already pre- 
pared for seed. AVe dine at Xenia and spend the night 
at Columbus, the country beyond which is exceedingly 
fertile and picturesque ; the forests appear in all the 
freshness of their early summer mantle, and the splendid 
wheat crops bear witness to a land of promise. The 
first settlers in this district have long since quitted their 
habitations to feed their cattle on prairies beyond the Mis- 
souri, discovered within the memory of living men. These 
pioneers of civilization are a nomadic race, never re- 
maining to enjoy the fruits of their toils, but treading 
close upon the footsteps of the Indians as they retire 
before the pale-faces towards the setting sun. In Ohio, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee, they grow maize for the ex- 
press purpose of feeding pigs, with which the woods 
literally teem, and millions of which, every year, are, at 
Cincinnati, slaughtered and salted for export, besides 
supplying innumerable boxes of bristles and barrels of 
lard. In 1853, I travelled over the part of Ohio bor- 
dering on Lake Erie, from Sandusky to Buffalo, and 
found it a fertile and densely populated district, with 
well-enclosed fields, large farm-houses, prettily situated 
towns, good roads, numerous churches, and a rich soil 
producing amazing crops of clover, wheat, and maize. 
It reminded me strongly of Lincolnshire, and some of 
the corn-growing midland counties of England. 

The valley of the Mohawk, extending westward from 
Albany, was not settled by white men till after the 



222 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

revolution; and several years even subsequent to that 
event it continued the country where the Oneidas 
hunted the beaver, where the bears roamed as monarchs 
and the wolves pursued the deer. The Indians them- 
selves called it "the dismal wilderness." I visited it 
in the autumn of 1853, and then it looked anything but 
a newly-discovered region of the western world. A 
fertile, open, and beautiful country — wooded like an 
English nobleman's park, varied by hill and dale, watered 
by fresh streams, with multitudes of farm-houses, vil- 
lages, and market towns — it proclaims itself a land of 
plenty for man and beast. All the way to Buffalo by 
Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Auburn, and a multitude of 
other places,doubling their population every few years, 
I passed through a district unexcelled, as far as agri- 
cultural wealth is concerned, by any in North America. 
Rochester, on the falls of the Grenessee, now contains 
upwards of 40,000 inhabitants, chiefly employed in grind- 
ing the wheat produced in the well-known valley of that 
river ; and thousands of barrels of whose flour annually 
find their way to Europe. Many of the farmers are 
Scotchmen, men of enterprise and skill, who cultivate 
200 to 250 acres each, and are rapidly acquiring wealth. 
Land there is worth 100 dollars per acre. Rochester, 
from its favourable situation, enjoys much of the pro- 
duce trade both on the canal to Albany and, by means 
of Lake Ontario, down the St. Lawrence. No country 
which I have seen excels in richness of soil and rural 
beauty the plain of the Grenessee. The land is a deep 
vegetable loam ; the trees are larger and more graceful 
than those which you usually see in the northern States ; 
the grass looks remarkably fresh ; lawns of great extent 
and natural advantages offer delightful sites for villas ; 
large fields of Indian corn and buckwheat alternate with 
meadows on which graze sheep and cattle ; clear streams 
run in the hollows ; and the farm-houses strike one as 
very pictures of neatness and prosperity. 

The United States abound in minerals ; Pennsylvania 
alone has a coalfield covering an area five times larger 



than tha 



NIAGARA. 223 



an that of the same layer in Great Britain ; in the 
north-west part of Illinois, round about Galena, an inex- 
haustible supply of lead lies close to the surface ; Mis- 
souri has a mountain composed solely of iron, and the 
earliest navigators who visited the sea-coast found the 
savages in possession of ornaments made from copper 
which no doubt came from the vast fields of that metal 
on the shores of Lake Superior. Pittsburg, the " Shef- 
field of America," can scarcely be seen on account of the 
dense smoke from its furnaces ; and sailing down the 
Monongahela I noticed that the hills were pierced in 
every direction with shafts, from the mouths of which 
railroads with excessively steep gradients convey the 
coal to barges on the river, the full wagon in descending 
pulling the empty one up the inclined plane. 

But now, as in a panorama, the scene changes again, 
and with reverent footsteps, like Joshua treading on holy 
ground, we go to gaze and wonder at the Palls of Nia- 
gara. Par be it from me to attempt a description of a 
sight which deprives many men of utterance, and almost 
takes away the breath. How inadequate are the forms 
of speech to convey to any mind even the faintest idea 
of the emotions which swell the bosom of the stranger, 
when the fond dream of his boyhood becomes a glorious 
reality, and awe- stricken, ay, trembling, he stands in 
full view of the mighty cataract ! The ground heaves 
beneath his feet, and every house sensibly vibrates with 
the concussion of the air. An overwhelming feeling of 
power binds him to the spot, and the boom of hidden 
thunders, ever and anon arising from the dread abyss, 
makes him for the moment imagine himself on the 
threshold of an unseen and terrible world. "We have, 
from the Buffalo cars, after following for several miles 
the course of the clear and peaceful river which flows 
out of Lake Erie, just caught a glance of the rapids in 
their fearful agony, and retire to our private room in the 
hotel until the bustle of an arrival is over, and porters 
and guides have gone ; for companions are irksome to us 
now. Niagara must be visited in silence, and alone. 



224 AMEBICA AtfD THE AMEBICAXS. 

Even the Indian, who, straying from his fellows, found 
himself on the brink of that tremendous rift in the 
adamantine rocks, and beheld the cloud of spray which 
for ever and ever ascends heavenward from the centre of 
the Horse Shoe, ceased his war-whoop and his savage 
dance, and on his knees muttered to the Great Spirit a 
heartfelt prayer. And we, wearied with the bustle of 
every day life, retire to some secluded grove of arborvitsB 
trees, that, with Nature only to bear us company, we may 
commune with Him " who holdeth the waters in the 
hollow of His hand." We saunter to the top of the 
cliff on the American side, but the sunbeams playing 
among the wreaths of spray prevent us realizing the 
grandeur of the prospect ; so we descend the ladder, and 
scramble over the ledges as close as possible to the 
mighty falling mass. The air is cold ; we are stunned 
by the terrific roar, and every now and then a fitful gust 
of wind blinds us with spray. But steady now for a 
moment, and sublimity itself awaits us. ¥e hear a hiss 
and a howl as we look down into the bottomless pit 
beneath our standing point, and if we can venture an 
upward look we shall see a sheet of crystal as it were 
tumbling down from the sky. 

" Look up ! 
Lo where it comes like an eternity, 
As if to sweep down all things in its track, 
Charming the eye with dread, a matchless cataract." 

"We may now cross the river in the little boat which 
conveys strangers to the British shore within reach of 
the drenching vapour, behold the Tails as they appear 
revealed in all their magnificence from the Clifton House, 
and then return by the great suspension bridge, 800 feet 
long, which has been thrown across the gorge a couple of 
miles below, at a height of 230 feet above the stream. 
!Now let us take our station on the rustic bridge which 
crosses the furious surges to Goat Island, just above the 
American fall. With mighty momentum the water comes 
down, leaping over driftwood and thrown by stony ledges 
into pyramids of foam ; here the stream rushes along 




NIAGARA. 225 

with dreadful speed, as if driven on by an unseen power; 
there it bounds against a rifted rock, and is tossed back 
with an almost supernatural force which sends a cold 
shiver through your frame. Look up the wild torrent 
as far as you can see ; a well-defined line meets your 
eye ; it is the sudden commencement of the rapids, but 
looks like the v horizon brought near. A day on Goat 
Island ! Would that no stormy ocean separated us from 
the groves of arborvitss and forests of maple, which over- 
hang the rapids and clothe the steeps ! Would that 
every summer we could for a few short hours at least 
recline on its grassy banks, watching the racing and 
eddying streams, listening to the growl of the cataract, 
and shaded by the foliage which waves and weeps over 
little channels between the rocks. There is one spot on 
it deserving special notice, near the beginning of the 
wilder rapids opposite the Canadian shore. A splendid 
vine, from which I plucked delicious grapes, and a red 
honeysuckle have there climbed to the very top of an 
arborvitse situated on a promontory, round which the 
water moans and bounds like a wounded tiger struggling 
to be free. Few people know how beautiful the scenery 
is at these Ealls, apart altogether from the water. The 
deep defile, the steep cliffs, the pine woods, the thickets 
of cedar and acacia, the villas and hotels themselves form 
a landscape lovely as the gorgeous creations of Salvator 
Rosa. We shall take one position more before saying 
farewell to Nature's masterpiece ; but first let us glance 
at the map that we may believe that ninety millions of 
tons of water plunge over this precipice every hour. 
The Niagara River, it tells us, is the only outlet of nearly 
half the fresh water on the surface of the globe, of lakes 
and streams covering 150,000 square miles. Every 
rivulet that finds its way into Lakes Superior, Michigan, 
Huron, Erie, and St. Clair, to say nothing of countless 
other lakes in the western wilderness, has no passage to 
the ocean except over the cataract ; and eagerly, majes- 
tically, and unceasingly leaps the river, broad as the Clyde 
at Dumbarton, the Mersey at Liverpool, or the Tay at 

Q 



226 AMERICA AXI) THE AMERICANS. 

Dimdee. The oftener it is visited, the grander it ap- 
pears. It is evening now. 

" From yonder trees we see the western sky 
All washed with fire, while, in the midst, the sun 
Beats like a pulse, welling at ev'ry beat 
A spreading wave of light." 

Just as the last beams of day mate the white surges 
sparkle like jewels in a crown, we reach the top of the 
signal tower on the Terrapin Rock. Tinged with gold 
the wild waters rush on to take the final plunge ; grace- 
ful foliage dyed with the hues of autumn hang over them 
like queenly drapery ; coloured rays dart through the 
woods on Groat Island, and the great cloud of spray 
sparkles for a moment in the glare of the sinking lumi- 
nary. jNTow comes the cold wind from Lake Erie, sigh- 
ing in the tree tops, whistling among the rocks, and 
swaying to and fro the awful pillar which shall rise in 
middle air from the base of the Horse Shoe Fall till time 
shall be no more. A voice of thunder speaks to us from 
the abyss below ; the shifting breeze blinds us with 
vapour ; and another gust shows us Hesper glittering in 
the front of heaven and heralding the night. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

Norfolk to Richmond in Virginia — The James River — Harper's Ferrj 
on the Potomac — The Ohio — Steaming on the Mississippi — Night on 
the " Father of Waters" — A scene on the Cumberland sand bar — 
" Sparring" — Staging in America — Corduroy roads — Ohio before the 
railroads — Journey from Louisville to the Mammoth cave — Mouth of 
the Mississippi, and New Orleans. 

Early in the spring of 1846 I embarked at Norfolk in 
a fast little steamer for Richmond, the capital of Virginia, 
and the chief seat of the tobacco manufacture. For 
four hours we sailed up the estuary of James River, which 
gradually contracted in width till it became scarcely 
broad enough to allow the vessel to turn. The air was 



THE JAMES RIVER. 227 

delightful, and the morning sun darted down his rays on 
the mirror-like water, reflecting on its surface the images 
of noble trees and the masts of fishing sloops with their 
sails hanging listlessly from the yards. Not a sound 
disturbed Nature's quietude but the quick splashing of 
the paddle-wheels and the flapping of the sea-fowls' 
wings, as, scared by the approach of man, they rose from 
their nests on the sea. "When the river narrowed, the 
scenery became more picturesque. The woods, recover- 
ing from a severe winter's frost, rejoiced in the genial 
heat of a southern sun. The deep green of the grass 
and maple-trees contrasted with the darker shade of the 
pine ; red and white fruit blossoms peeped out from the 
thickets of copsewood ; birds of every hue hopped on the 
long overhanging branches, and from countless sweet 
wild flowers a delightful perfume was wafted on the 
gentle breeze. Turning suddenly round some rocky 
point the steamer occasionally passed the beautiful resi- 
dence of a planter, with its apple orchard and nicely 
mown lawn, and surrounded by fields of Indian corn. A 
little further on and all was once more solitude. It is 
gloomy and cheerless to wander alone in these aged 
woods, deserted since the last of the Powhattans fled to 
their retreats in the west. No track can you find but 
that of the prowling wolf; no axe awakens the echoes of 
the groves ; not a tree has been hewn, not a branch 
lopped off there ; the seed fell and took root ; the young 
plant grew till it became a hoar denizen of the forest ; 
time withered its branches and decayed its trunk ; a 
blast from the north laid it prostrate on the ground : 
there it lay withering for ages ; other trees have grown 
up in its place, and in their turn fallen a sacrifice ; yet 
the settlers still let them alone, and there they stand, 
not much altered since Sir Walter Raleigh took posses- 
sion of the country in the name of the Virgin Queen. 

Of all the picturesque scenes which I witnessed in 
America, none remains so firmly impressed upon my 
memory as Harper's Ferry 2 where the clear limpid 
Shenandoah, from the upland wilds of Virginia, unites 

Q 2 



228 AMERICA AKD THE AMERICANS. 

its waters with the Potomac. " The passage of the Poto- 
mac through the Blue Bidge," wrote President Jefferson, 
"is, perhaps, one of the most stupendous scenes in 
nature. You stand on a very high point of land ; on 
your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged 
along the foot of the mountain a hundred miles to seek 
a vent. On your left approaches the Potomac, in quest 
of a passage also ; in the moment of their junction, 
they rush together against the mountain, rend it 
asunder, and pass off into the sea." 

During my first visit to the United States, I sailed 
down the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, a dis- 
tance of nearly 500 miles. The scenery is picturesque, 
but monotonous. The hills wooded to their summits, 
the limestone bluffs covered with verdure, the flourish- 
ing little towns, the fertile plains dotted with the 
white houses of settlers, the corn-fields, and orchards 
seemed to me so like each other, that I sometimes 
imagined the steamer's progress to be a delusion. Oc- 
casionally, however, the river expands so as to present 
the appearance of a lowland lake, and near the " Queen 
City of the West," the hills on the northern bank 
have by industrious Germans been planted after the 
Rhenish fashion with vines, which, having a good 
southern exposure and a genial climate, now yield a 
considerable quantity of wine. Hemp grows extensively 
in Kentucky, and every now and then you find power- 
loom factories for making from it bagging to bale the 
1 cotton. The sheds for drying tobacco are also prominent 
objects on the left bank of the stream. But let me 
now carry my reader in fancy to St. Louis, the com- 
mercial capital of the vast region lying between the 
Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies, where last year 
I embarked in the high-pressure steamer, "Tishomingo," 
on the Mississippi. The Mississippi ! the very name 
must be reverently pronounced. The first sight of the 
mighty stream produces emotions similar to those felt 
at the Palls of Magara. I have no sympathy with 
men who can speak of it in disrespectful terms, as 



THE MISSISSIPPI. 229 

muddy, tiresome, and uninteresting. Think of its course 
— 3000 miles — of its maintaining a uniform breadth of 
rather more than a mile through ten degrees of latitude, 
from the Belize to where the Missouri, clayey and dis- 
coloured, pollutes its transparent waves, of the destiny 
yet awaiting it when the forests shall have fallen to 
make way for grain fields and cities, and millions of 
Anglo-Americans shall have fairly possessed the land. 
The individual who affects to ridicule the " Father of 
"Waters," must, to my mind, be destitute either of the 
capacity to appreciate sublimity, or of all interest in 
the advancement of his race. At the junction of the 
Mississippi with the Missouri, watching the struggle 
between the clear and the turbid currents, I felt as if 
in the presence of two powerful giants, whose majesty 
and influence demanded the homage of every living 
man. 

Thrice tolls the bell on the hurricane deck, the 
negroes "fire up" with energy, the mate hauls in the 
gangway, the pilot with eager eye grasps the wheel, 
and the " Tishomingo" backs off from the levee, the 
temporary mail-boat for Louisville, the regular liner, 
" General Pike," having a few days before struck a 
snag, and gone down in three minutes afterwards. JSTow 
we swing round ; puff ! puff ! goes the steam alternately 
from the pipes, the paddle-wheels revolve, and running 
with the current, we soon leave St. Louis far behind. 
The night was stormy, and dark as pitch. The accuracy 
of the steering amazed me ; sometimes the foliage of the 
trees seemed impending over us ; once or twice she 
gently touched a sand-bar, and occasionally I caught a 
glimpse of a snag close to the vessel ; but in an hour or 
two I could not see two yards ahead, and yet on we 
went full speed as if on an open sea ! The bell ringing 
and the bumping on the ground prevented me sleeping 
very soundly. Next morning, when I got on deck, the 
steamer was landing cargo at Cape Girardeau, 130 miles 
below the city we had left. There are no quays or 
piers on the western streams ; the boats go up bows 



230 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

into the soft mud banks — a plank is laid between the 
deck and the shore, and passengers scramble up and 
down the bluffs as they best can. How solemn and 
grand are the unbroken forests ! I sat for hours near 
the pilot's lofty house, gazing at them in their many- 
coloured autumn dress, and watching the majestic flow 
of the river. Our passengers seemed to be chiefly 
youngsters farming in the west, prodigal of oaths, ac- 
coutred in all the vulgarity of Mississippian fashion, 
chewing tobacco without intermission, and using the 
entire deck as a spittoon. I got into conversation with 
an intelligent Spaniard from Cardenas in Cuba, who 
had been up the Missouri shooting deer, and with an ex- 
ceedingly excellent lady, who taught a school in Indiana, 
one of that meritorious class who disseminate through- 
out the entire Union the principles of Christian truth, 
and are very guardian angels in many half-civilized dis- 
tricts of the west. After dinner the knives of the com- 
pany were brought out, and dandies in blue coats and 
patent leather boots commenced energetically to whittle. 
Twenty wooden shanties at the mouth of the Ohio con- 
stitute the famed city of Cairo ; and there, followed by 
flocks of turkey-buzzards and disturbing myriads of 
ducks the " Tishomingo" turned up that stream. "We 
had steamed as fast as possible, but darkness closed in 
before we reached the dreaded sand-bar at the mouth 
of the Cumberland, ten miles above Paducah, in Ken- 
tucky. Great detention had lately been experienced by 
the packets at this impediment to navigation, and all 
hands turned out on deck to see whether or not our 
lightly laden craft would be able to cross. A bend of 
the river all at once revealed to us one of the most 
strikingly picturesque scenes which it has been my good 
fortune to witness. There was the noble Ohio, clear, 
broad, and tranquil, flowing on peacefully, in the star- 
light, between solemn forests ; while, straight ahead, a 
galaxy of lights indicated the presence of several large 
steamers aground on the sand bar, and burning pitch 
pine torches to warn new comers of their position. 



A SAXD-BAR. 231 

"I say, Horsefly," remarked our spare Indiana captain 
to the Kentucky pilot, some six feet six inches high, 
" that looks ay leetle bilious, don't it ?" " So I reckon," 
was the curt reply ; and the bell tolled for soundings. 
" Eight feet," sung out Jack with the lead line, in slow 
recitative tones; " eight feet," echoed the mate, on the 
hurricane deck, to the steersman above ; " six feet large," 
was the next report, followed in ten seconds by " five 
feet scant." I had scarcely time to look at my neigh- 
bour, when "three feet," rung in my ears; and the 
" Tishomingo" ran slap on the bar, rolling and thump- 
ing as if her frail planks would part. " Go it again, 
Massa," shouted a merry negro from the " Fashion," a 
large boat lying near. For a minute we swung in the 
stream, then, backing off, tried, but in vain, at another 
point, to the no small amusement of the coloured gentle- 
men on board the other steamers, who played tunes on 
fiddles, as they said, to help us over. The yawl was next 
launched, and a party sent out to discover the best 
place at which to " spar" the ship across the bank. 
This singular but safe and simple process is peculiar, as 
far as I know, to the Mississippian waters, and deserves 
a word of explanation. Attached to the lofty posts, 
which extend from the lower deck considerably higher 
than the hurricane deck of every steamer, near the bow 
are two stems of large trees, sharpened at the thicker 
extremity. These are swung round and fixed in the 
sand, immediately in front of the paddle-wheels. By 
means of ropes and pulleys, the men, working at the 
capstan, press these beams into the bed of the river, and 
thus elevate the bows of the vessel, when the wheels are 
set in motion, and the ship, thus raised, slips over the 
sand bar. It necessitates severe exertion on the part of 
the seamen, and occupies a considerable time. Owing 
to the excessive darkness of the night, we were unsuc- 
cessful in our first attempt ; and our captain had, re- 
luctantly, to lie by till Sunday morning , the sparring 
was then resumed, and we were on the point of getting 
off, when the " Golden Gate," steaming down the river. 



232 AMEBIC A AND THE AMERICANS. 

ran into the "Tishomingo," and drove her farther than 
ever upon the bar. A third trial proved more fortunate, 
and at eleven o'clock, on one of the loveliest Sabbath 
mornings I ever beheld, we were again under way, 
rapidly advancing towards the Cave in the Rock and 
Shawnee Town in Illinois. On these clear, cold, au- 
tumnal nights, nothing can be more beautiful than the 
reflection of the stars in the Ohio. But that very night, 
an awful scene occurred on board our vessel. In con- 
sequence of the hard work which the men had had to 
perform on the bar, an extra allowance of spirits had 
been allowed them; and given out with very little dis- 
cretion as far as quantity was concerned. Some of the 
negroes, early in the evening, showed symptoms of in- 
toxication, and about eleven o'clock two of them quar- 
relled, or, to use the American expression, " had a dif- 
ficulty ;" one seized a piece of coal and broke the nose of 
his adversary, then, alarmed at what he had done, having 
" got scared," according to the account of the other deck 
hands, he ran aft and sprung overboard, sinking to rise 
no more before the engine could be stopped or any 
effort made to save him. Next day we reached Port- 
land, and drove, in rickety carriages, to Louisville, " the 
Falls City" and metropolis of " Old Kentuck." 

One cold cheerless morning in October, at half-past 
three o'clock, I was roused from my bed in the Louis- 
ville Hotel, to take my place in the Nashville stage, in 
which I intended to travel as far as the Mammoth Cave 
in Edmonston county, a distance of ninety-five miles. 
Nearly an hour was very uselessly spent in driving about 
town to pick up passengers ; nevertheless, day had not 
long dawned before we stopped for breakfast at the first 
changing place. An American stage is a clumsy vehicle, 
made to stand very hard usage, seldom washed, and 
seated for nine inside passengers, besides one on the 
box with the driver, who generally merely accompanies 
his own team. Indeed, ten or fourteen miles of such 
roads as are common in the United States try the phy- 
sical powers of any charioteer. It requires no little 



STAGING IN THE WEST. 233 

muscular exertion to guide four spirited horses in such 
circumstances, with snaffle bridles, and at the same time 
to manage the drag. Sometimes the wheels for miles 
and miles sink deep in sand. Once I saw men actually 
ploughing the road to make it better, and often the 
stones thrown down in order to improve it form more 
serious impediments than the holes themselves. When 
ladies are in the question, too, these coaches frequently 
carry many more than their complement, the gentlemen, 
in accordance with American custom, submitting to be 
squeezed into a corner rather than not act gallantly 
towards the fair sex. I recollect, in Georgia, passing- 
over a few miles of the most awful tracks under the 
sun, in a stage of the dirtiest description, the mud and 
water frequently up to the axles, and the vehicle rolling 
about like a ship in a storm. Sometimes we all ex- 
pected an instant capsize; sometimes we ran slap against 
a tree ; and at others the driver, seeking a smoother way 
through the wood, got his team entangled in the foliage. 
In central Illinois I was one night in a stage drawn by 
four well fed horses, and did not discover, until we had 
proceeded some miles, that the driver was drunk, and 
had been once or twice asleep in the course of an hour. 
We were travelling over the open prairie, uncultivated 
and unfenced, and could see nothing but the stars. 
Then we entered a thick wood, and watered the animals 
on the banks of a creek over which the branches hung 
in festoons, the feeble twinkling of the celestial lumi- 
naries only rendering more striking the forest gloom. 
On another occasion, at La Salle in the same State, after 
an execrable dinner at a tavern kept by a rough un- 
washed gentleman rejoicing in the title of " Colonel" 
Hardy, I " took my passage" in a kind of cart which 
traverses the track between that place and the Illinois 
river, and crossing it, not in a boat; but on a raft, got 
into a railway truck filled with men, women, children, 
trunks, boxes of goods, &c. &c, and was hauled up the 
steep and lofty bluff by a stationary steam engine to 
meet the cars. But it was on the corduroy roads of 



234 AMERICA AXD THE AMERICANS, 

Ohio that I became most intimately acquainted with 
stage travelling in America. It is impossible to do 
justice by description to this primitive sort of locomo- 
tion ; one must experience before realizing the sensa- 
tions produced by such drives. We started from the 
inn door at Columbus, I well remember, at a hand 
gallop, and I was congratulating myself on the prospect, 
of a pleasant journey, when the coach as near as pos- 
sible capsized in a hole apparently unfathomable, and I 
found that the so-called road was a mere track cleared 
of trees, the stumps of which had been in some places 
removed, but not in all, and laid in boggy spots cross- 
ways with logs of wood, to prevent the vehicle disap- 
pearing under the soil. jSTo pickaxe had ever been used 
in its construction ; not a ravine had been filled up ; not 
a protruding rock removed; no fence protected you 
from the precipice or the neighbouring wheat-field from 
you ; and instead of crossing rivers by means of bridges, 
we descended the steep bank with the assistance of the 
drag, plunged pell-mell into the stream, and urged the 
horses by unearthly shouts to scramble up the bluff on 
the opposite shore. Four or five miles an hour is good 
travelling on the stage routes of America. But I have 
digressed. We were on our way to the Mammoth Cave, 
and are crossing the Salt Eiver in what a fellow-traveller 
said was neither a bridge, nor a boat, nor a barge, but 
simply " a fixing," before traversing the barrens of Ken- 
tucky, a wild district lying between us and Bell's 
Tavern, which, after fording the Green Eiver, we reached 
at midnight. The air was bitterly cold, and the foxes 
were barking in all directions around. A large wooden 
hotel, capable of accommodating 250 people, has been 
erected in a dense oak copse at the entrance to the far- 
famed cavern. To it I drove next morning through the 
woods, procured lamps, lunch, jind a well-known guide, 
named Stephen. On entering the cave, he turned 
round and said, " This, sir, is the place described by 
Virgil — you remember the passage — as the " facile des- 



THE MAMMOTH CAVE. 235 

census Avemi." During our five hours and nine miles' 
walk in the bowels of the earth, he spoke both Latin and 
French, quoted from Greek, Spanish, and German 
authors, showed some knowledge both of botany and 
chemistry, and sung with remarkable taste and power. 
He is an excellent geologist, has read all Sir Charles 
Ly ell's books, and got into raptures when I told him I 
knew Hugh Miller, whose " Old Eed Sandstone" he 
seemed to have by heart ; yet this man of uncommon 
parts and varied acquirements never received any edu- 
cation from the hands of another, and was then — you 
may be excused, gentle reader, for doubting my veracity 
— a negro slave. 

The Mammoth Cave has been explored for eighteen 
miles. It has 165 miles of avenues in all, forty-seven 
domes, twenty-three pits, and eight cataracts. The Main 
Avenue is so regular and uniform as to resemble an 
English railway tunnel on a large scale, the limestone 
strata on its roof appearing like clouds in the darkness. 
Then there are the Rotunda, an apartment seated like a 
lecture-room ; the Church, with its pulpit and galleries ; 
the Gothic Chapel, where stalactites and stalagmites 
meet to form pillars ; Gorham's Dome, resembling the 
cupola of a vast cathedral ; the Bottomless Pit, an abyss 
165 feet deep ; the Valley of Humility, and the Tat 
Man's Misery, so low and narrow that you can scarcely 
creep along; the Dead Sea, with waters so perfectly 
still that when you drop in a stone, their rippling and 
sighing are audible for ten minutes afterwards ; the 
River Styx, which travellers cross in a boat, and — not 
to mention many other wonders — the Star Chamber, so 
called from a number of white spots on its dark roof. 
When Stephen descended behind the rocks with the 
lamps, and cast a shadow over the ceiling, the illusion 
was perfect. I felt convinced that I was in the open 
air, looking from a deep glen up to a precipice, and 
viewing a dark cloud gradually obscuring the stars. 
Silent and sublime is that vast cavern. "Wandering 



236 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

along its aisles and avenues you feel as if, like Moses in 
the clefts of Sinai, you might every moment see the 
glory pass before you. 

"We now change the scene. It is a winter evening — 
far on in December — but the climate to which I 
transport my readers is one where winter, in the 
English sense of the term, is unknown. The air feels 
balmy, a bright phosphorescent track lies in the wake 
of the vessel ; long-billed pelicans fly lazily around us ; 
we have come from the cocoa-nut groves and sugar- 
canes of Cuba, " Queen of the Antilles," and are stand- 
ing on the hurricane-deck of a steamer on the Gulf of 
Mexico, looking out anxiously ahead for the Belize 
light. Late at night its halo appeared in the horizon, 
and next morning early, when I got on deck, the colour 
of the water had changed, the beautiful blue having 
given place to the muddy tinge of the mighty Missis- 
sippi. A little cutter, making all sail towards us, soon 
gave us a pilot, and at breakfast-time we " slowed" over 
the bar at the entrance of the Pass Luter, one of the 
mouths of the great river. On entering, you see on 
both sides low marshes, evidently in process of con- 
solidation, drift timber lying in the open spaces of 
salt lake, between the sedges. Around these logs 
reeds gradually grow ; the stream in freshets washes 
down soil, and the seeds of plants, carried by birds and by 
the wind, complete the process. Thus the large delta 
has been formed, and thus it increases day by day. A 
few miles farther up, the river flows in one channel 
only, and the breadth of morass on each side is so trifling 
that you see the waves of the Gulf breaking almost 
within gun-shot of the steamer. The Mississippi looks 
like a mammoth canal, with frail, sedgy banks elevated 
above the tide-level of the ocean. Now the huts of 
fishermen begin to peep out of orange groves sparkling 
with splendid fruit. Dense woods succeed, and then, 
all the way up to JSTew Orleans, you have a continuous 
row of sugar plantations, with large grinding and boiling 
mills, planters' houses, white negro-cottages, and cane- 



MONTGOMERY. 237 

fields extending for half a mile back to the skirts of the 
forest. They have a cheerful, thriving appearance, and 
add much to the beauty of the landscape. So deep is 
the river that our large steamship sometimes, at bends, 
nearly touched the mud on shore, and the impending 
foliage. All the mills are driven by high-pressure 
steam-engines, and were in full operation. The banks 
are covered with the bruised cane, which cannot, in 
Louisiana, as in Cuba, be used as fuel, owing to the 
dampness of the atmosphere. At five p.m. we swept round 
a point and beheld " the Crescent City," with its forests 
of masts, crowd of river steamers, and huge warehouses 
for cotton and sugar. New Orleans looks well from 
the Mississippi, but will disappoint the stranger; and, 
walking in its back streets after rain, he will be at no 
loss to assign reasons for calling it "the City of the 
Plague." 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 

View from the Capitol at Montgomery — The wooded plains of Alabama 
— Scenery of Georgia and the Carolinas — The Forests in Autumn — 
Unprecedented rise of Western Cities — Cincinnati, St. Louis, 
Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago — The Prairies — The Anglo-Saxon inva- 
sion of the Far West. 

Otje, imaginary panoramic view shifts again, and we 
stand on one of the verandahs of the Capitol at Mont- 
gomery, the seat of government for the State of Alabama, 
situated on a lofty bluff, and commanding a magnifi- 
cent prospect of woods, apparently as boundless as the 
sea. Immense quantities of cotton grow on the rich 
bottom lands of this district ; on my way up from 
Mobile I met a great many steamers deeply laden with 
it. On the top of the banks I observed rude presses 
for packing the cotton. Fifteen hundred pounds of 
seed-cotton is the usual produce of an acre, and that 
quantity gives five hundred pounds of picked cotton. 
'They separate the seed from the down by means of gins, 



238 AMEllICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

the latter flying off like chaff, while the former is used 
for making oil. The bales, when ready for shipment, 
are without ceremony rolled down the mud-banks to the 
water's edge. 

Indian corn flourishes luxuriantly iu the rolling 
country further north ; but about one-third of Alabama 
remains in the possession of the United States Govern- 
ment, unsettled and wild, and there the live oak and 
laurel, the hickory and pine, the mulberry, chestnut, 
cedar, and cypress combine to form 

' ' The midwood shade 
Where scarce a sunbeam wanders through the gloom. " 

Eeturning to the view from the Capitol, at our fee' 
lay the new city, with its wide unpaved streets, where 
horses step up to their fetlocks in adhesive clay, its 
" omnium gatherum" shops, brick stores in process of 
erection, white villas, large hotels, and steepled churches ; 
the Alabama River looked like a great silvery serpent as 
it wound through the plain, and, far as the eye could 
reach, on all hands waved an unbroken ocean of foliage. 
There is something solemnizing in this wild waste of 
woods. Wandering in their recesses, the sunbeams, as 
it were, eclipsed, and the cold air penetrating my frame, 
I have been able to realize the truthfulness of Mont- 
gomery's beautiful lines — 



' ' No breath from heaven refreshed the sultry gloom, 
The arching forest seemed one pillar' d tomb, 
Upright and tall the trees of ages grow, 
While all is loneliness and waste below." 






Europeans generally associate with the scenery of 
Georgia and the Carolinas groves redolent with the 
luscious perfumes of magnolia blossoms, glades of ever- 
green oak, and savannahs clothed with varied wild 
flowers. All these do, now and then, cross the travel- 
ler's path; but he will find far more commonly brush- 
wood copses, sandy barrens, dismal woods of pitch-pine, 
and morasses apparently untenanted even by game. We 
shall, therefore, leave the south and transport ourselves 



THE EOKESTS IN ATTTUM>\ 239 

to Indiana, to see the autumn glory of its forests under 
an October sky. It is worth one's while to cross the 
Atlantic in order to enjoy the atmosphere of the Indian 
summer, when for weeks not a cloud appears in the 
horizon, and the rays of light are mellowed only by that 
almost imperceptible haze which comes, we are told, 
from the red men smoking their pipes beyond the pas- 
ture-ground of the buffaloes. Between Indianapolis 
and the Ohio you now and then emerge from the forests 
into clearings which afford striking pictures of life in 
the backwoods of America, the stumps remaining in the 
ground quite close to the few log-huts and half-dozen 
frame- dwellings which constitute a settlement ; while 
corn grows under dead, upright trees, and dense woods 
all around shut out the rays of the morning and the 
evening sun. Gray and gorgeous is the foliage in the 
western States during the summer months ; but who 
can describe the instantaneous and marvellously-beautiful 
effect produced by the first severe frost in October. 
Bich as earth's drapery was before, now it appears as if 
bathed in the hues of the rainbow, as if in the hours of 
darkness the angels had descended from their pavements 
of sapphire and painted creation the colour of heavenly 
flowers. Never can I forget a journey through Indiana 
in the later fall, when every glade revealed to me brighter 
and more varied tints than I had ever seen before, 
to use the glowing words of Coleridge — 

' ' Hanging woods that touched by autumn seem 
As they were blossoming hues of fire and gold." 

The oaks wore a mantle of dark crimson, the creep- 
ing-vines and underwood were dyed vermilion, the pop- 
lars were dressed out in yellow, the beeches robed in 
purple looked like Nature's kings, a delicate flame colour 
distinguished the rock maples, while the pine and the 
giant hemlocks stood aside in their sombre green, and 
above a sky of brilliant blue completed the gorgeous 
livery of the scene. Then, as the sun sank in the west, 
rays of crimson and gold seemed to set fire to the forest; 
a pale lavender hue next prevailed in the heavens, till 



240 AMERICA A]SD THE AMERICANS. 

the last streaks of light departed, and the night wind 
ushered in a clear cold moon. 

A few moments' consideration bestowed on the un- 
precedented^ rapid rise of some new cities in the 
north-western States may, perhaps, assist towards form- 
ing an idea of the wonderful energy which characterizes 
the American people, and of the vast resources of that 
country which the Almighty, for wise and momentous 
ends, has given them as an inheritance. In 1846, 1 stood 
on the brow of a hill half way down the Ohio, which fifty 
years before commanded a view over a wilderness of 
forest, unexplored even by the adventurous huntsman 
wandering far from the abodes of men. The smoke from 
a few scattered Indian wigwams was the only indication 
of inhabitants. The grassy banks of the rivers were 
covered with deer as yet unwarned by the rifle's sound. 
How different the view presented to me. True, woods 
of great extent still might be seen, but between me and 
the noble stream, in all the pride of regular architecture 
and great prosperity, lay Cincinnati, the " Queen City of 
the "West," then containing 70,000 people, now doubled 
in population and size. Numerous church spires, amaze 
of crowded streets, great foundries for iron and brass, 
cotton-mills, pork-curing establishments, and huge hotels, 
filled my mind with astonishment, and I had scarcely 
time to notice the many elegant villas scattered on the 
hill-sides and over the plain, or the fleet of high-pressure 
steamers moored to the wharf. 

Three hundred and fifty miles as the crow flies, farther 
west, a short distance below the junction between the 
Mississippi and the Missouri, stands St. Louis, the com- 
mercial capital of the western country. Its rows of 
lofty brick warehouses, extensive workshops, and ele- 
gant stores, will surprise any one who knows that at the 
commencement of the present century its foundations 
had not been laid. Now, more than 100,000 people 
carry on within its municipality an active trade with 
all the regions watered by the Mississippi and its tribu- 
taries, and though upwards of 1300 miles from the sea, 



WESTERN CITIES. 241 

1 counted fifty-three steamers lying at the levee, or broad, 
roughly-paved embankment, which slopes down to the 
stream, and serves as a quay. The annual commerce of 
St. Louis, imports and exports included, does not fall 
much short of 100,000,000 dollars. I shall scarcely be 
believed when I state that at first sight it reminded me 
of Liverpool. So far back as 1848, it owned 24,000 tons 
of steamboats, and during that year, besides 815 flat 
boats, there arrived at the port steamers with a tonnage 
of 469,735. Every ward of the city has a spacious and 
well-aired market ; the new churches struck me as most 
expensive erections, and I sauntered into one coach- 
building establishment which would not have disgraced 
the west-end of London. Then take Buffalo, well de- 
serving its appellation, " the Queen City of the Lakes." 
Main-street, with its hotels, stores, shops, squares, 
and promenades, will bear a comparison with any street 
in America, though only forty years ago it had no exist- 
ence, and the quays on Lake Erie are so crowded with 
men and merchandize, that you can with difficulty walk. 
In 1814, this town was burnt to the ground by the 
British soldiery ; in 1850, it contained a population of 
42,261. Detroit, 250 miles farther west, has of late 
years also advanced with extraordinary rapidity. Already 
it can boast of far finer shops than we have in many of 
our provincial towns, and having been laid out in 
avenues, squares, and circuses, with remarkable taste 
and skill, promises to be the handsomest city in North 
America. 

Finally, I mention Chicago, which in 1831 was a mere 
trading-post, from which huntsmen sallied out to attack 
the buffaloes, and where the red-men disposed of their 
furs. Manv Americans, even when I first visited the 
States in 1846, had never heard of it \ in 1854, I found 
it a city of 60,000 inhabitants, having 7627 dwellings, 
1184 stores, 54 schools, 61 churches, and 196 manufac- 
tories. Twenty years ago, Lake Michigan there rolled 
in upon a deserted, sandy beach, to which now and then 
a solitary trapper stole down to watch for an Indian 



242 AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

canoe. Now not a day passes but steamers, propellers, 
and sailing craft enter a well-protected harbour ; three 
railroad lines have their termini in the suburbs ; the 
electric telegraph brings the news in a few hours from 
the Atlantic seaboard; splendid stone churches rear 
their steeples above the houses, and in the Tremont 
Hotel I sat down to dinner with three hundred travel- 
lers from all parts of the world. One omnibus company 
alone now employs seventy horses on a spot where, thirty 
years before, the red-man pitched his wigwam, and 
hunted the elk. If this be not progress, we shall search 
the universe for it in vain. 

Only one more panoramic view remains ; it dis- 
plays 

" The gardens of the Desert, 
The unshorn fields boundless and beautiful, 
For which the speech of England has no name. 
The Prairies." 

The boom of Niagara fills the stranger with awe ; 
so does the deep silence of these treeless, flowery plains. 
They are covered with long grasses and ferns, and extend 
in gentle undulations far as the eye can reach, little 
clumps of timber now and then only rendering their un- 
broken vastness more striking. Mount on a hillock, and 
you see an ocean of verdure waving in the breeze. In 
the absence of foliage, Nature seems to have put forth 
her inventive powers, and carpeted the earth with 
gems. The wild flowers are of all sizes and colours, 
but generally large, and tinted as gorgeously as the 
gayest robes that were ever dyed by the merchant 
princes of Tyre. The soil of these illimitable savannahs 
is the richest on earth, and in summer they look as if 
clothed in a garment of party-coloured damask, made by 
a superior race of men. As I wandered on the Grand 
Illinois Prairie, collecting specimens of the beautiful 
plants which decked it, I felt deeply solemnized by a 
sense of stillness and immensity, and almost persuaded 
myself that angelic voices whispered in the wind which 
blew softly from the bright red clouds in the western 



THE EAR WEST. 243 

heavens, and wafted towards me the fragrance of so many 
flowers. 

The buffalo has but recently disappeared from the 
plains lying eastward of the Mississippi, yet an active 
population is fast bringing them under the plough, and 
in a very few years we shall look in vain for prairies on 
this side of the river. I have alluded frequently to the 
progress of the Great West, to its populous cities, its 
workshops, its railroads, its steamers, and its agricultural 
resources ; but beyond it lies another region which de- 
serves a word of notice before I close. "Will my reader 
for one moment accompany me in thought across the 
flowery savannahs of Illinois, the wheatlands of "Wis- 
consin, and the fertile watercourses of Iowa to what may 
now be termed the Far West — to Minnesota and Ne- 
braska, whither already the pioneers of the Anglo-Saxons 
have gone to build log huts and plant corn on fields 
where armies without a historian have often met in 
savage battle, and whose soil has been watered by the 
blood of chiefs ? " Westward the star of empire takes 
its way," and before the march of Yankee civilization 
there disappear, not only the Indian and the buffalo, but 
the trapper who delights in the wild life of the chase, 
and the French half breed who carries the tail of a rattle- 
snake for an amulet, and tries to frighten away the 
thunder by whistling at it through the wing-bone of an 
eagle. The rapidity with which American institutions 
have extended to these newly-organized territories is 
\ truly surprising. Steam saw-mills are now in operation, 
axes and hammers are busily at work where one year ago 
the red-men assembled round their council fires, and 
towns have sprung into existence near the Falls of St. 
Anthony, whilst the smoke of Indian lodges was still 
visible in the west. 

" Behind the scared squaw's birch canoe 
The steamer smokes and raves, 
And city lots are staked for sale 
Above old Indian graves." 

On rivers scarcely known in Europe even by name, 



2M< AMEEICA AND THE AMERICANS. 

rafts containing three million feet of timber may be seer, 
and Christian churches stand on bluffs which formed tl 
rendezvous of painted warriors only a few summers h 
fore. St. Paul is 2087 miles from the mouth of th 
Mississippi, in a region purchased from the Sioux 
already its hum may be heard over waters on which on] I 
lately the bark canoes of the aborigines glided silent] 
along, and railroads are projected to connect it wit 
valleys fertile and promising, but yet silent and wild a 
when " the stars sang together, and all the sons of Go- 
shouted for joy." The blockhouses and forts no longe: 
stand quite beyond the pale of civilization, »and eagen 
New Englanders cast a longing eye towards those vasij 
plains between the Missouri and the Yellowstone, where* 
the deer and the antelopes still shelter themselves from; 
the forays of wolves, under the powerful protection m 
the buffaloes. The huntsmen and trappers of the lasti 
century, and the undaunted missionaries of Christianity 
who in former days discovered these territories, woulc 
not know them now. As the red-men retire to thu 
obscurer west, they undergo a mighty change, and foi 
my part, when I think of the schools and churches anc 
other beneficent institutions which keep pace with the 
march of the conquering race, I cannot but rejoice ii 
the transformation, and thank God for raising up such 
people to govern the American continent. 



THE END. 



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